MCPA

But residue levels of the chemical were in excess of the limits placed by Japan, a major importer of Ceylon tea.

Last year, Sri Lanka tea board chairman Rohan Pethiyagoda warned importing countries were going to put restrictions on imports as a result, with detections of excessive residues of unauthorised chemicals in exports to Japan and Germany in August.

It is a very serious problem, but I cannot wake up this Government to think seriously about it. Goodness knows, we have tried,” he said in the Sri Lankan Daily Mirror.

The tea industry in Sri Lanka employs more than a million citizens.

The industry has also criticised the science behind the ban, with Roshan Rajadurai, chairman of the Planters’ Association of Ceylon, claiming there was no evidence to show the chemical had negative health ramifications for employees.

In fact on the weedicide issue, there is totally unanimous agreement between the labour trade unions, the regional plantation companies and all stakeholders. This by itself ought to be sufficient evidence to immediately re-examine this policy,” he said.

German coalition to ban glyphosate

Glyphosate and genetically modified crops will be banned in Germany as part of a coalition agreement between Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU), their sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU) in Bavaria and the Social Democrats (SPD).

It was speculated disagreements over glyphosate could derail a coalition deal. But the parties have come to an agreement after four months of negotiations which included the banning of glyphosate, although no timescale was given for the ban.

It comes after German agriculture minister Christian Schmidt, of the CSU, voted in November to extend the approval of glyphosate in the EU for five years, causing a rift in the coalition.

Other agreements include a ban on genetically modified crops and a new animal welfare label to help ensure better conditions in industrial farming.

The deal will need to be approved by delegates at the CDU party conference on February 26 and SPD members next month.

Sri Lankan farmers warned the ban was losing them ground in key export markets, such as Japan.

by C.A.Chandraprema Courtesy The Island

February 24, 2018, 8:43 pm

After the recent local government elections, political discourse has been dominated by the overwhelming victory of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna against all odds to emerge as the single largest political entity in the country. The aftershocks of that political tsunami are still continuing even as we pen this column. SLFP ministers in the government are still in a state of shock after their abysmal showing at the LG elections and some have not been seen at Cabinet meetings since that day. Dayasiri Jayasekera the SLFP spokesman has not been seen at Cabinet press briefings. Now a proposed cabinet reshuffle is to take place with new infighting over ministries. While public attention is distracted by these events, a far more dangerous and far reaching development has gone almost unnoticed – the state of near collapse of the Elections Commission. Even though the unprecedented delay in announcing the election result was commented on, it has been pushed into the background by other events.

Elections Commissioner

The Elections Commission is the body that makes representative democracy possible in this country. If this state of dysfunction continues any longer, it’s going to place in jeopardy the entire political system that we have come to take for granted. The state of collapse in the Elections Commission extends to all its functions. For example, this writer wanted to do an analysis of the election results and after accessing the Elections Commission website, clicked on the tab saying ‘Election Results’. This brought up only the results of the recently concluded local government election. Originally, this tab provided access to a menu that had the results of past Presidential, parliamentary, provincial council and local government elections. Now all details of those past elections have vanished and all that is left are the results of the recent local government elections. Earlier, when there was a new election, its results were displayed on a page that could be accessed through a highlighted link. Now there is only the result of the most recent election in the EC website with no way to compare the latest result with the results of previous elections.

Furthermore, this time the Chairman of the Elections Commission declared that it was not his business to declare a final result. Perhaps the law does not specifically say that a final result should be declared following a local government election. But there is a need to present election data in a manner that can be used by researchers and analysts. There is no law that is violated if the Elections Commission indicates the island-wide aggregate of the total number of votes, seats institutions etc. won by the various political parties and independent groups and also shows the district-wise breakdown of the results. What we now have on the EC website as the results of the 2018 local government election is a long list of the 340 institutions that went to the poll with a link to a page that gives the detailed result of each institution.

As there is no final aggregation and a district-wise breakdown of the election result, anyone trying to do an analysis of the results and to compare them with previous election results will have the Herculean task of preparing the district-wise breakdowns and the national aggregates himself. This is a time consuming task and explains why there have been no analyses of the elections result in the media. The Elections Commission can easily compile district wise and island-wide aggregates of the result with just a click of the mouse. There seems to be a deliberate attempt on the part of the Elections Commission to prevent people from analyzing election related data by presenting election results in a manner that makes it possible only for well staffed institutions to be able to undertake such a task. This is a matter that came to this writer’s notice a couple of years ago and has now been confirmed by the way the Elections Commission has presented the data of the local government election that was just concluded.

Signs of collapse worsening by the day

Some years ago, before the present Elections Commission was instituted, the Elections Department website presented information about past elections in generally satisfactory detail. The national final results were given, the district wise breakdowns, the polling division breakdowns, and those elected on the basis of preference votes were also indicated on the website. However when the Present Elections Commission was instituted, the website also underwent a change and the way the data relating to past election results was presented also changed. When I say that the earlier Elections Department website had adequate information about past elections, I must add that they had only the results of elections held in the new millennium but at least this was available in a usable format. After the change of the website, the same data that was presented earlier in a usable format was now presented as just long lists of elections results by polling division and the number of members elected and some of the more useful information like the names of the members elected and the preference votes they received have been omitted.

The crowning glory is what has happened now with the result of the latest election and the Elections Commissioner himself stating that it is not his business to declare a final result. I recently went to the Elections Commission and made inquiries from the officials there whether I could have the detailed results of all elections from 1947 to the present day. I assumed that they would have all such details on CDs. But they had nothing. All the data that the EC had was on the website and the presentation even of that limited information was being changed in such a manner as to make it unusable.

In contrast to this, if anybody visits the website of the Indian Elections Commission, they have minutely detailed results of all elections at the central government and state level held in Independent India from 1951 to the present day. When data is presented on a website, there need not be any concerns about the number of pages the details will go into. If data relating to election results are to be useful, it should have all the necessary details such as who contested, who won, how many votes the winning candidates and political parties and independent groups got, the number of votes received by the defeated, and the aggregation of all this information at the national level, the district level and perhaps even the polling booth level so that one can observe the trends. A body like an Elections Commission need not be told how vital this information is. They have a duty to provide data relating to past elections to the public.

Firstly, there is what appears to be a deliberate whittling down of information available to the public. Then for the first time in history, there is a failure by the Elections Commission to announce the results of an election on time. If such a thing had happened in the 1970s, it would have been excusable. But today, with it being possible to relay information around the globe in a matter of seconds, such a thing is inexcusable. It was providential that this time, the results of the various local government wards were announced to those present at the polling booths, and the signed documents were photographed and made available on social media and certain websites. So people knew at least informally who had won and who had lost and that ensured that people would remain calm despite the delay in releasing the official results. Can one even imagine what would have happened if there had been no social media to relay the polling booth and ward level results? We are told that the release of the official results was delayed because of calculations that had to be done regarding the number of seats a political party was entitled to on the proportional representation quota. But the results of the election could have been released earlier leaving the announcement of the number of seats each party was entitled to, for later.

Candidates treated like convicts

Furthermore, the public pronouncements of the Chairman of our Elections Commission when an election comes around makes one wonder whether somewhere down the line, we have not lost sight of what an Elections Commission should be doing. When an election comes around, the first thing that we hear is the Elections Commissioner bellowing that those who try to disrupt the election will be shot in the head. Then we hear him listing the punishments that will befall those who violate elections laws. At the last elections we heard him saying that those who hold meetings in temples will be lose their civic rights for seven years. Every time an election comes around we hear these ‘yama rajjuruvo’ style pronouncements from the Chairman of the Elections Commission so much so that one wonders whether he has missed his vocation and should have been the Chairman of a Prisons and Correctional Facilities Commission instead.

Indeed at election time, the candidates are treated like felons by the Elections Commission. During the recent local government election campaign, this writer saw a report in the newspapers to the effect that the former Ududumbara PS Chariman, one Senarath Bandara who had been caught putting up posters had been arrested, hauled before a Magistrate and then released on two bail bonds of Rs. 50,000 each and the vehicle he used to transport the posters released on a bond of Rs. 6 million. The Magistrate had also warned the hapless candidate that if he is caught violating election laws again, he will be remanded until the end of the election. This was just for putting up posters, not for threatening a rival candidate or causing any real harm to anybody. This is obviously a case of overkill. The elections law in Sri Lanka is such that it has made offences of almost everything that candidates do at election time.

If we point this out to the Elections Commission, their reaction will be predictable. They will say in the fashion of typical bureaucrats that such is the law and they only implement the law. Today however the Elections Commission is an independent body and not a government department, and one would believe that it is they who should be making recommendations to make corrections in the elections law. Occasionally, one sees someone taking up the matter of the impractical elections laws. On 6 April 2014, the Sunday Observer carried an article with the title “Election laws outdated and impractical” where the heads of elections monitoring bodies had said that candidates are compelled to breach the elections law since they are so impractical and they stressed the need to amend these laws urgently. Take for instance the following provisions in the Parliamentary Elections Act of 1981.

Section 69 – Restriction on processions: From the time nominations open and till one week lapses after the election result is declared, nobody can conduct or take part in processions to promote any candidate. During this period, non-political processions of a religious or social nature may take place, but even at such processions, it is illegal to promote a candidate. Those violating this law are liable to not just a fine but a prison sentence of up to one month as well. Section 74 – Display of handbills & posters: From the commencement of the nomination period until the end of the poll, no handbill, placard, poster, drawing, notice, photograph, symbol, sign, flag or banner of a candidate can be displayed on or across any public road. The same cannot be displayed in any premises whether public or private either. However candidates may display banners and posters on the vehicle used by the candidate. Posters and banners may be displayed in public or private premises only on the day that an election meeting is to be held in those premises.

In addition to the fine and one month prison term for violating this law, a specific provision in Section 74(3) says that the fine and prison term or both can be imposed on anyone even ATTEMPTING to commit the offence described in this section. The police are also authorized to use such force as may be reasonably necessary to prevent the violation of this ban and they are expressly given the authority to seize any handbill, placard, poster, notice, drawing, symbol, photograph of a candidate, sign, flag or banner used in such contravention. Section 75 – Restrictions on house to house canvassing: From the day the nominations close until the day after the poll, candidates and the members of their immediate families are prohibited from going house to house canvassing for votes. They are also forbidden from distributing handbills and election propaganda material from house to house.

What sense can anyone make of these laws which seek to ban candidates from engaging in activities that are most visibly associated with elections? An election is all about candidates marketing themselves by putting up posters and cut outs of themselves, distributing hand bills, going from house to house canvassing for votes and holding processions in support of his candidacy. By doing what he is supposed to do, a candidate becomes a violator of election laws. Very often, a candidate does not know whether he is going to stand for election until the day nominations close. So it is really after nominations close that the election campaign begins in earnest. This is also exactly the period in which the law seeks to place restrictions on candidates from promoting themselves.

Mercifully, the Sri Lankan elections law does not seek to stifle public meetings, that other great sign of an election. Section 70 stipulates that public meetings have to stop only 48 hours before the date of the poll. But as we saw earlier, even with regard to these meetings, posters announcing such events can be displayed only at the venue that such meetings are to be held, and that too only on the day of the meeting itself. How can anyone expect to pull crowds for an election meeting that is not announced beforehand? If someone puts up posters announcing the meeting a few days early, that too will be an election law violation.

In India, putting up posters and cut outs, distributing leaflets, holding processions and house to house canvassing between the time of handing in nominations and polling day are not illegal. According to Article 126 the Representation of the People Act of 1951, in India, election campaign processions, the distribution and broadcasting of propaganda material etcetera is prohibited only in the 48 hours preceding the closing of the poll. As for canvassing for votes, Article 130 of the Representation of the People Act suggests that in Indian elections, canvassing for votes is possible until the last moment even on polling day provided that such activities do not take place within 100 meters of the polling booth. In Sri Lanka however, according to Article 68 of the Parliamentary Elections Act of 1981 canvassing for votes on polling day is absolutely prohibited.

Arbitrary power in the hands of the unfit

On top of all this is the completely arbitrary power that Elections Commission bureaucrats have in accepting or rejecting nomination papers in Sri Lanka. At the recently concluded local government elections dozens of nomination papers were rejected for unbelievably petty reasons. The Nivitigala PS nominations of the United Left Front led by Lal Wijenaike was rejected because there were 15 names in the second nomination paper whereas the requirement was only 12 names. The bureaucrats in the Elections Commission did not allow the ULF to delete the last three names even though they had letters from the three candidates consenting to the removal of their names from the list. The SLPP nominations for the Tirappane PS were rejected because the date had not been written below the party secretary’s signature. The Maharagama UC nominations of the SLPP were rejected on the ground that in the column where the gender of each candidate to be stated, the gender of one female candidate was inadvertently written as “male” instead of “female”.

Once these nomination papers were rejected by elections officials, even the Supreme Court did not intervene to put things right. Thus we have a situation where an Elections Commission that cannot present data relating to past elections in a proper format, and which cannot conduct an election without a major mess up in announcing the results is given arbitrary power to reject nominations on the flimsiest of excuses. We have to forgive the Elections Commission for failing to release the election results on time, and causing a delay that has never before been experienced in this country in living memory but the Elections Commission fails to ‘forgive’ someone who had written ‘male’ instead of ‘female’ in the column indicating the gender of candidates. In India which has a competent Elections Commission, the bureaucrats are not vested with such arbitrary power over nomination papers. Section 36(4) of the Indian Representation of the People Act of 1951 stipulates that the returning officer shall not reject any nomination paper ‘on the ground of any defect which is not of a substantial character’.

The Indian Elections Commission (IEC) has given specific instructions to its returning officers that there is a presumption that every nomination paper is valid unless the contrary has been made out and further that if there is a doubt as to the validity of a nomination paper, the benefit of such doubt must go to the candidate concerned and the nomination paper should be held to be valid. The IEC has specifically instructed their Returning Officers that a nomination paper should not be rejected for a defect, which is not of a substantial character. Any mistake or error of a technical of clerical nature should, therefore, be ignored. The IEC expected their returning officers to ‘interpret the provisions of the law intelligently and with commonsense’. Under the Indian elections law, if any objection has been raised against a nomination paper, and the candidate needs time to rebut that objection, the affected party can immediately apply to the Returning Officer for time and the latter can allow up to two days for the rebuttal of the objection.

The Indian Elections Commission is what an Elections Commission should be like. In comparison to the IEC, our Elections Commission is in a state of collapse. They can’t present data on past elections in a usable format, they can’t announce election results on time, yet they have arbitrary power to reject nomination papers on the flimsiest of excuses. If this situation continues any longer, future governmental change is going to take place in this country through street action, not through elections. The Elections Department was functioning generally satisfactorily until it became an independent commission and one wonders whether there is a deliberate attempt to run down and undermine the elections mechanism in this country. When you turn it over in your mind, you realize that one creative way to destroy the entire Sri Lankan state will be by running down the body that conducts elections.

Chairman, Sri Lankan Solidarity Movement

Our organisation, The Sri Lankan Solidarity Movement, is extremely alarmed by secret defence reports written by our adversaries, the US, UK, which accuse our Sri Lankan Armed Forces of being responsible for the perishing of civilians during the last phases of the war with no proof whatsoever to prove such bogus charges. In sharp contrast, our contention is that such secret reports written by our adversaries, the US, UK, should be categorically rejected outright.

Those of us who have actually lived in the US, UK, EU, Australia, Canada, Norway, Sweden etc. know very well that these countries routinely lie about those countries that they do not like, in their secret defence reports. In Sri Lanka’s case, although the said secret defence reports were apparently produced by the US, UK defence attachés who were resident in May, 2009 in Sri Lanka, in actuality, these secret defence reports have been produced by the CIA and the MI6. What we think is that the US, UK’s fallacy spread about forty thousand civilians perishing was proved totally false. Then the US, UK spread the next fallacy which was twenty thousand civilians perishing. This also, over the years, proved to be totally false. Therefore the US, UK have now produced secret defence reports suggesting that in the case of the UK, seven thousand civilians perishing and in the case of the US, five thousand persons perishing of which 25% were LTTE terrorists (all in a time period of the last five months of the conflict!). We think that these secret defence reports were produced maybe a few months ago, but backdated to show as if they were produced in May, 2009, in order to cover up the previous fallacies of the US, UK etc. However, these charges are totally false with no proof whatsoever to prove such bogus charges. Therefore, our contention is that the Sri Lankan Government should categorically reject outright such bogus charges since our Sri Lankan Armed Forces fought only with LTTE terrorists and only LTTE terrorists died, as a result, during the last phases of the conflict. No civilians perished during the last phases of the conflict at the hands of the Sri Lankan Armed Forces as we have shown by use of irrefutable proof below.

Our best informant as far as the last few months of the war is concerned is our own Sri Lanka Army who was there all the time, after all, and knows exactly what happened. It is our own Sri Lanka Army, Navy etc. and those commandeers who commandeered those divisions of the Sri Lanka Army, who we should turn to for factual information.

When observing the events of the last year or so of the war, the LTTE itself admitted that they drove the entire civilian population under their control all the way from Mannar in the North West coast, all the way up to the North East coast of Mullaitivu way before the Sri Lanka Army reached any of the LTTE held towns such as Kilinochchi, Mankulum etc. Around 300,000 civilians, partially from the Mannar and Vavuniya districts and totally from the Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts, were driven away by the LTTE all the way up to the North East coast of Mullaitivu. Once the Sri Lankan Army commenced advancing from Mannar, the LTTE quickly evacuated the Vanni civilians and made them travel deep into the Vanni inlands. Therefore, civilians were not anywhere near the fighting between the Sri Lankan Army and the LTTE until mid February to mid May, 2009. Therefore, when the army captured Kilinochchi, Mankulum etc. and all other LTTE towns, there were no civilians there to be affected. The army only fought with the LTTE terrorists at all these places. In newspaper reports we read, the Sri Lanka Army stated that when they entered Kilinochchi, it was a ghost town, since all the civilians have been made to move deep into the Vanni inlands quite sometime prior to the arrival of the army. In a programme on TV, the Sri Lanka Army stated that at Mankulum, which was an LTTE held town, when the army took over, around 60 LTTE terrorists perished, according to the army.

Even at Puthukudiyiruppu, which was a major LTTE camp where a major battle took place, there were no civilians there to be affected, since the army fought only with LTTE terrorists. Therefore our contention is that there could not have been any civilians casualties all the way from Mannar, via capturing of Kilinochchi, Mankulum, Puthukudiyiruppu etc. since there were no civilians at any of these places at all since all the civilians were driven away by the LTTE deep into the Vanni, as the LTTE itself admitted. The army only fought with LTTE terrorists and both our soldiers and LTTE terrorists did perish, as a result. Subramanium Sivagami alias ‘Colonel’ Thamilini, leader of the LTTE women’s political wing, in her book published prior to her death due to an illness recently, says that after the Sri Lankan Army secured Kilinochchi, the final counter offensive launched by the LTTE at Puthukudiyiruppu during the first week of April, 2009, led to the loss of over 600 LTTE cadres, including several senior LTTE personnel. This, again, suggests that it is the LTTE terrorists alone who the army encountered and it is only the LTTE terrorists who perished in these operations.

It is only during the last few weeks of the war that the army even encountered any civilians, after reaching the Nandikadal lagoon area. Here, the army was given strict instructions to use only light weapons when dealing with the LTTE terrorists by the Sri Lankan Government. To acquire an idea of how vast this area is, the Nandikadal lagoon is a vast lagoon which is as vast as the Negombo lagoon. Therefore, imagine how vast this area is. There was a vast land area to the North of the lagoon. It is best to purchase a map of the area from The Survey Department in order to acquire a knowledge of how vast this area is. The LTTE built earthen berms at one end of the vast land area stopping the army from advancing. These berms however covered only a small strip of this vast land area. The army wanted to breach a point of these berms and fired at the LTTE terrorists who were on the other side of the earthen berms but using light weapons. Therefore, since these earthen berms covered only an infinitesimally small area of this vast land area, only the LTTE terrorists on the other side firing back at the army could have been affected by the army firing at them. Civilians, we are sure, took refuge in the vast land area beyond and therefore they could not have been affected by the firing between the army and the LTTE terrorists across these earthen berms since the earthen berms took up only an infinitesimally small area of this vast land area and to the South was also the vast Nadikadal lagoon, as large as the Negombo lagoon itself.

One thing to keep in mind is that there is irrefutable independent confirmation that the army used light weapons only during this time. This confirmation is contained in a book published recently, written by Sri Shiv Shankar Menon, the Indian Foreign Secretary at the time. He states in his book that a troika inclusive of Shiv Shankar Menon flew to Sri Lanka regularly using the Indian Air Force in order to meet their counterpart troika in Sri Lanka i.e. Basil Rajapakshe, Gotabhaya Rajapakshe and Lalith Weerathunga. Shiv Shankar Menon states that Pranab Mukheerjee the Indian Foreign Minister was kept informed at all times of every meeting and happening that took place. He says that all the requests of the Indian Government i.e. only to use light weapons due to the civilian presence in the area, corridors for civilians to escape, adequate food and medicine deliveries into the area by sea, safe areas where no conflict was to take place and where civilians can take refuge, evacuation of all persons who were ill by sea, Indian medical teams at standby at Pulmuddai, Trincomalee etc., requests to the LTTE terrorists to put down arms and surrender and no harm will come to them etc. all these requests by the Indian Government were adhered to and implemented by the Sri Lankan Government to the satisfaction of the Indian Government. Therefore there is irrefutable proof that the army used light weapons only.

Since the LTTE terrorists shut all land routes by the end of January into the area by use of earthen berms, civilians who fell ill due to normal illnesses or LTTE terrorists who were injured due to firing between the army and the LTTE terrorists across the earthen berms, all were evacuated by ICRC ferries from the 10th of February 2009 until the 12th of May 2009, according to the ICRC. Regular ICRC press releases at the time states that from the 10th of February 2009 until the 12th of May 2009, a period of twelve weeks, the ICRC evacuated 13,500 persons in total from the area, from Puthamathalan to the Pulmuddai base hospital by sea where there were Indian medical teams as well as Sri Lankan medical teams to treat all patients. Of the 13,500, only half were patients i.e. 6,750. The rest, 6,750, were a relative or a friend who accompanied each patient. Of the 6,750 patients, half were evacuated due to normal illnesses such as flu, cold, cough, diarrhoea, pressure etc. who we can assume were civilians i.e. 3,375. Only the other half, i.e. 3,375 were evacuated due to conflict related injuries i.e. LTTE terrorists since all, LTTE terrorists and civilians, were evacuated during this time. We can conclude that if only 3,375 LTTE terrorists were injured during these three months, then around 1,125 (taking into account a 1:3 ratio of conflict related deaths to conflict related injuries) LTTE terrorists would have actually perished. Taking a 1:4 ratio of conflict related deaths to conflict related injuries, 845 LTTE terrorists would have perished. Therefore around 1,125 LTTE terrorists would have perished from the 10th of February 2009 until the 12th of May 2009 due to the conflict. How did we come up with this ratio? Major General Kamal Gunaratne in his just released book says that over 5,900 Sri Lankan Forces were killed while over 29,000 were injured from 2007 until May, 2009. This provided us with a 1:5 ratio which should be similar for the LTTE terrorists. However, since the fighting near the Nandikadal lagoon area was more continuous rather than intermittent events spanning over many months and years, even if light weapons were used, a higher ratio of conflict related deaths to conflict related injuries would have taken place. What is interesting is that Major General Kamal Gunaratne says that between January, 2009 until May 2009, around 2,500 Sri Lankan Army soldiers perished in the war.

We also know of an incident where the LTTE fired at and killed around one hundred civilians who tried to escape to the army’s side from mid February 2009 until the 12th of May 2009. There was also the incident where an LTTE suicide bomber dressed as a civilian blew herself up near a makeshift IDP reception centre killing Sri Lankan military personnel as well as a few civilians. The one hundred civilians fired at and killed by the LTTE would have been buried at the LTTE graveyards created by the LTTE within the area concerned.

What also needs to be taken into consideration is that by the 11th of May, 2009, the LTTE leadership let the civilians leave to the army’s side. From the 12th of May 2009, there were no civilians in the Nandikadal lagoon area. Therefore, from the 12th of May 2009 until the 18th of May 2009 there was only Prabhakaran and his gang of around three hundred LTTE terrorists who hid in the Nandikadal lagoon area and the army went after them from the 12th of May 2009 onwards. From newspaper reports from that time, we read that Prabhakaran and around three hundred LTTE terrorists died at the hands of the army from the 12th of May 2009 until the 18th of May 2009 around the Nandikadal lagoon area. We also read from newspaper reports that once the conflict was over on the 19th of May 2009, our soldiers were told to bury those LTTE terrorists that perished during this time in the LTTE graveyards that the LTTE already created in the area. Therefore around three hundred perished LTTE terrorists would have been buried at these LTTE graveyards after the 19th of May 2009 by the army.

The Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights Project of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) acquired and analyzed commercial high-resolution satellite imagery of the area concerned. Imagery analysis was initially requested by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International USA (AI-USA) (the ill intention of HRW and AI-USA was to place the Sri Lanka Army in trouble, of course). However, only three gravesites were found from satellite imagery taken of the area concerned on five separate days, the 23rd of March 2009, 19th April 2009, 06th May 2009, 10th May 2009 and the 24th of May 2009. One contained 342 graves and was considered to be an LTTE graveyard. Another contained 960 graves and was considered to be an LTTE graveyard. The third contained 44 burials and was considered to be a civilian’s graveyard. Therefore in total around 1,346 graves were found in the area concerned as three separate graveyards.

What is noteworthy is that the LTTE graveyard containing 960 graves was present prior to the 6th of May, 2009 and did not expand since that time. The civilian graveyard of 44 graves was also present prior to the 6th of May, 2009 and did not expand since that time. However, the Southernmost LTTE graveyard expanded from the 19th of April, 2009 to the 6th of May, 2009 by 195 graves. From the 6th of May, 2009 until the 10th of May, 2009, this Southernmost graveyard expanded by another 77 graves. By the 24th of May, this Southernmost LTTE graveyard expanded by a further 70 graves to 342.

This suggests that when the army breached a berm and advanced further on the 20th and 21st of April, 2009 (with most of the civilians evacuating to the army’s side as a result, however with some civilians and LTTE terrorists remaining), the army took extreme precautions when engaging with the LTTE terrorists since that time, since the LTTE graveyard expanded only by 272 graves from the 19th of April until the 10th of May, 2009. By the 11th of May, 2009, the LTTE leadership allowed all the remaining civilians to evacuate from the area to the army’s side. From the 12th of May until the 18th of May, 2009, the army went after Prabhakaran and a gang of perhaps three hundred LTTE terrorists within the Nandikadal lagoon, located further to the South. Prabhakaran and his gang of LTTE terrorists are presumed to have perished at the hands of the army during the crossfire between them. Therefore the expansion of the Southernmost LTTE graveyard by a further 70 graves by the 24th of May, 2009 would have been the army itself burying these perished LTTE terrorists at this LTTE graveyard since in numerous TV programmes, we saw that the army was told to find and bury any perished LTTE terrorists within the Nandikadal lagoon area from the 19th of May, 2009 onwards, once the conflict ended.

In conclusion, two LTTE graveyards of 960 and 342 graves and a civilian’s graveyard of 44 graves have been found in the area concerned. Of this, around 1,125 and a further up to three hundred, are of LTTE combatants themselves as shown above. Over one hundred civilians were shot at and killed by the LTTE itself may have been buried at these graveyards, too. Since, as stated above, the around 300,000 Vanni population were driven by the LTTE itself deep into the Mullaitivu area, the army did not encounter any civilians as their operations advanced, until mid February, 2009 onwards. Therefore civilians could only have perished from mid February, 2009 until the 12th of May 2009. However, only 1,346 graves have been found in the area concerned, which are overwhelmingly of LTTErs. Therefore, apart from the one hundred civilians who were shot at and killed by the LTTE itself, where is the proof that any civilians perished at the hands of the Sri Lanka Army? The overwhelming conclusion from the evidence above is that almost all those who perished until the 18th May 2009 at the hands of the Sri Lanka Army were LTTE terrorists.

In the secret defence reports the US, UK have produced suggesting that in the case of the UK, seven thousand civilians perishing and in the case of the US, five thousand persons perishing of which 25% were LTTE terrorists (all in a time period of the last five months of the conflict!), where is the proof on the ground that these bogus claims are true? The only conclusion is that this is a fallacy similar to all the other fallacies that the US, UK came up with over nearly three decades as far as Sri Lanka is concerned.

We suggest to the US, UK to provide Sri Lanka with the names, the identity card numbers of those they claim perished during the last five months of the conflict so that we can cross check as to their whereabouts. After all, these persons should have a name, an identity card number, a birth certificate, an address etc., surely, if they actually existed and also figure out if they were an LTTE terrorist or not. The US, UK will never ever provide such proof since their bogus claims come straight from the separatist terrorists themselves and are total lies.

One thing to note seriously unlike the US, UK’s totally bogus charges is that the United Nations Country Assessment Team and the UN representative in Sri Lanka, just a week after the conflict concluded, declared 7,721 persons (meaning LTTE terrorists and all others and not ‘civilians’ as even some mistakenly call this figure since persons means LTTE terrorists and all others which may have included a few civilians too) killed and 18,479 persons (again meaning LTTE terrorists and all others) injured from August 2008 until 13th May 2009. However, we think that the UN had no time to investigate anything just after the conflict concluded and extracted this figure from Tamilnet, the mouthpiece of the LTTE, since they had no other sources to extract their information from, as far as what happened on the LTTE’s side is concerned. We think this information was extracted from Tamilnet since Tamilnet also had very similar figures in its reports at that time. Therefore these figures are totally unreliable too and almost certainly untrue. What can be estimated is that from August 2006 until May 2009, over 6,600 Sri Lanka Tri Forces members perished and therefore it can be estimated that a similar number of LTTE terrorists also perished from August 2006 until May 2009.

It should be noted that when the ICRC evacuated any patients from Puthamathalan from the 10th of February 2009 until the 12th of May 2009, they were brought by ferry by sea from Puthamathalan to Pulmuddai where there was a base hospital. At Pulmuddai were Indian medical teams as well as Sri Lankan medical teams ready to treat any patients of any illnesses or LTTE terrorists of any conflict related injuries. They could then easily access the main hospital in the entire province which was at Trincomalee and even Colombo by air. Food and medicine too were regularly shipped by the ICRC by use of the ferry into the area concerned, for use by civilians. Once the conflict was over, around 300,000 civilians left the area concerned and were held in IDP camps by the Sri Lankan Government. At the conclusion of the conflict, over 11,300 LTTE terrorists surrendered too. All these persons were given medical examinations by Indian medical teams at the IDP camps, without exception. In fact, after about one month, the Indian medical team stated, as we read in newspaper reports at the time, that they have examined all the around 300,000 civilians and that they have nothing more to do and so they left after a successful task completed back to India.

One thing to note is that in spite of the LTTE terrorists preventing them doing so, the safe zone enabled a large number of civilians to escape the LTTE terrorists in April, when the earthen berm confining the civilians who were now the LTTE’s captives was breached by the army at a certain point while loosing many of its own soldiers circa 20th to the 21st of April, 2009. However, a segment of persons, mostly loyal LTTE cadres and a segment of civilians moved to the Southern segment of the safe zone.

During the last few months of the conflict, ITN and Rupavahini journalists were embedded with the Sri Lanka Army. There were also The Hindu correspondents, Kanchan Prasad and Muralidar Reddy. Contrary to claims that there were no witnesses to events that took place, several journalists, e.g. Kanchan Prasad and Muralidhar Reddy from The Hindu, and reporters from Doordarshan TV of India were embedded with the 58th Brigade on the Sri Lanka army’s side. David Gray, a Reuters correspondent, had also been touring the battlefield for a month in April, 2009, and clearly states that the soldiers were feeding those civilians that escaped etc., and no mention of any ‘indiscriminate attacks’. Reddy indicates having access to the internet (and being aware of allegations of civilian casualties that were being made at the time), they would have acted and reported any such incidents if they ever took place, which they did not, of course. Sri Lankan academics (e.g. Dr.Tammita-Delgoda, a historian at the Kadirgamar Institute) and other local journalists were also embedded with the Sri Lanka army. There were approximately 535 NGO workers who were with the LTTE terrorists, and all of them returned unharmed at the end of the conflict!

When observing the food distribution etc. the ICRC was present throughout the conflict, and suspended operations only on the 12th of May 2009, since all the civilians had successfully escaped the LTTE entrapment by that time. The government had issued the ICRC 104,765 metric tons of food and medicine to be taken to the conflict zone. There were also the UN/WFP convoys providing food and medicine, and the Darusman Report mentions 7,435 metric tons of food being delivered over five months, but omits the 104,765 tons delivered by the ICRC. A measure of food needs accepted by the UN can be obtained from the UN-run Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps in Northern Kenya: they shelter approximately 535,000 refugees, and were supplied 10,000 metric tons/month of food by the UN/WFP. This was prior to a 20% cut in November, 2013. This suggests that the around 300,000 hostage population held by the LTTE would need 5,610 tons/month, or about 28,050 tons for five months. Hence, using typical UN/WFP food-supply rates, it is clear that roughly four times the needed amount of supplies were provided by the Sri Lankan Government via the ICRC and the UN/WFP combined.

If the OHCHR or the US, UK, EU, Australia, Canada, Norway, Sweden etc. want to know what really happened, why not inquire from the Sri Lanka Armed Forces themselves? They can talk to the ITN, Rupavahini journalists, The Hindu journalists Kanchan Prasad and Muralidar Reddy. They can talk to the Reuters journalist David Gray. They can talk to the Doordharshan TV of India’s journalists who were embedded with the 58th brigade of the Sri Lanka Army. They can talk to the Sri Lankan academics (e.g. Dr.Tammita-Delgoda, a historian at the Kadirgamar Institute) and other local journalists who were embedded with the Sri Lanka army. They can inquire from the Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon who, after all, wrote about this in his book. Why not talk to the Indian medical teams who examined all the civilians of around 300,000, once the conflict ended and the Sri Lankan medical teams who treated patients. The OHCHR or the US, UK, EU, Australia, Canada, Norway, Sweden etc. will not talk to the above mentioned persons since this is not about seeking the truth but a witch hunt against Sri Lanka.

It should also be kept in mind that over 6,600 Sri Lankan Tri Forces members i.e. the army, navy and the air force perished due to the conflict from August 2006 until May 2009. This means that at least 33,000 of our Sri Lankan Armed Forces members would have been injured during this time from August 2006 until May 2009 too. We can add a few hundred police forces members who would have perished too, to this figure. Over 626 overwhelmingly Sinhala civilians were blasted to pieces by various incidents such as bomb blasts, claymore mine blasts in buses, trains, shops, roadsides etc. all over the country by LTTE terrorists during this time (we have obtained incident by incident of individual incidents which have been lodged with the police as police incidents, as a list, and counting the victims led us to this figure). Therefore, around 7,500 overwhelmingly Sinhala persons have been massacred by the LTTE terrorists during this time. Our question is who is questioning the LTTE terrorists, those of the Tamil diaspora who supported the LTTE terrorists, the TNA etc. and other separatists, the US, UK, EU, Australia, Canada, Norway, Sweden etc. who indirectly supported the LTTE terrorists, who is questioning them as to why around 7,500 overwhelmingly Sinhala persons died during this time at the hands of the LTTE terrorists? Why is the OHCHR not interested in investigating as to why over 7,500 overwhelmingly Sinhala persons perished at the hands of the LTTE terrorists from August 2006 until May 2009?

Another important fact to note is that after the conflict concluded, for months and months, we saw on ITN, Rupavahini etc. the vast amounts of weapons caches that the Sri Lanka Army found in the Northern Province which belonged to the LTTE. There is no doubt that the LTTE possessed the most advanced and the most sophisticated weapons in vast quantities, either equivalent to in sophistication or superior to and in quantities equivalent to or greater than the Sri Lankan Tri Forces themselves. In effect, the LTTE possessed sufficient weapons to blow up the whole of Sri Lanka three times over, if necessary! Our question is, why is the OHCHR or the US, UK, EU, Australia, Canada, Norway, Sweden etc. not paying any attention to the fact that the LTTE was a well armed terrorist group and the Sri Lankan Tri Forces engaged with such a well armed terrorist group and not normal Tamil civilians as they seem to call the LTTE terrorists.

One more thing we need to point out is that countries such as the US, UK, who have routinely lied about Sri Lanka at every stage by use of fallacies such as forty thousand civilians perishing with no proof whatsoever to prove such a fallacy and then a second fallacy of twenty thousand civilians perishing again with no proof whatsoever to prove that fallacy too, are we stupid enough to accept their latest fallacy of seven thousand civilians perishing or five thousand persons perishing of which 25% were LTTE terrorists (all in a time period of the last five months of the conflict!), again with no proof whatsoever? If so, we Sri Lankans must be the stupidest people on earth. We should instead categorically reject outright any secret defence reports produced by our adversaries, the US, UK. Our Sri Lankan Armed Forces should only accept facts that can be proven by evidence on the ground and certainly not any fabrications by any quarter whatsoever.

We note, however, that Lord Naseby who obtained these reports using the Freedom of Information Act of the UK, is a good hearted person who has helped Sri Lanka (an unfortunate victim of our adversaries) at all times. However, all he did was obtain these secret defence reports. It is up to our Sri Lanka Armed Forces, The Ministry of Defence and the Sri Lankan Government to verify if these secret defence reports are true or not and categorically reject them outright as fallacies since there is no proof whatsoever to prove these fallacies. Our own Ministry of Defence, our own Sri Lanka Armed Forces and the Sri Lankan Government have all the information at their disposal to prove that these are all fallacies.

We also urge the Sri Lankan Government to categorically withdraw from being the co-sponsor of the UNHRC resolution since the other co-sponsors i.e. the US, UK are actually our adversaries who have lied about Sri Lanka for nearly three decades, who have placed Sri Lanka in deep trouble by concocting up fallacies about civilian casualty figures again and again and have been found out. The US, UK etc. have indirectly supported the LTTE terrorists throughout the nearly three decades of conflict and the their ulterior motive is to partition Sri Lanka via an amendment to the constitution and they are trying to scare Sri Lanka into passing such an amendment by use of totally bogus war crimes charges.

The build up to and the manner in which Sri Lanka is being treated, despite freeing around 300,000 civilians whilst providing a safe nation for 21 million people to live in, seems not to hold any importance to those drafting resolutions and they forget their silence for over 26 years when the LTTE terrorists massacred with impunity and are now making a hypocrisy of themselves investigating what may or may not have happened during the last five months of a long drawn out conflict with ulterior motives in mind.

During the last few months before the end of the LTTE ground force there were 3 players inside the theatre of war – the Sri Lankan Armed Forces, the LTTE and Tamil civilians and the possibility of South Indians also fighting needs to be ascertained? We know that 6261soldiers died between 2006 and May 2009, we know that close to 300,000 people were saved, we are told that a figure between 40,000 to 200,000 had been killed whom accusers say are ‘civilians’. All these figures are confusing but we need to know how many were LTTE and how many can claim to be civilians and how credible is the evidence of the accusers.

Sri Lanka Military records reveal that 6261 soldiers died during the last phase of the conflict (Eelam IV). Their details – names, date killed are all available. How they got killed and more importantly who killed them is never answered. They had to have been killed by either of the 2 other parties inside the theatre of war – the LTTE or Tamil Civilians. However we also know that the LTTE had an auxiliary force called the Makkal Padai” comprising 2 branches (Eelapadai & Gramapadai). These units blurred the distinction of who was a civilian and who was not – at least 10,000 of the Tamils claiming to be ‘civilians’ were trained as combatants and are automatically denied civilian status.

Eelapadai – comprised 5000 volunteer civilians who were homeguards and later used during the final conflict. They were on LTTE payroll.

Gramapadai – comprised 5000 civilians who fought alongside LTTE and helped resist Army advances to LTTE dominated areas. They helped LTTE logistics and also took part in the final conflict.

Therefore, all those who turned up at the Army civilian medical centres and IDP receiving points (between Jan-May2009) cannot be categorized as Civilians – they may have been LTTE in civil or civilians who were part of the LTTE auxiliary force.

What is confusing the scenario further is the question of whether South Indian illegals also fought on side of the LTTE. We know for certain that illegals from Tamil Nadu were consistently arriving in Sri Lanka which is why we cannot make sense of the population and the births and deaths do not match as a result. Since 1981 proper census was not done. Most of the officials in the North were under LTTE influence. People on state payroll were also working part time for the LTTE. Others were too scared of LTTE and in such a scenario doctoring of figures by the grama sevaka and the AGA to suit LTTE cannot be ruled out.

This is confirmed by UTHR (J) report that gramasevakas of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu were working very closely with LTTE.

From the 1990s the LTTE has used the headmen under its control to police the people, force them to attend demonstrations, perform compulsory military service as auxiliaries, impose punitive cuts of rations, diddle government aid and report on those coming in and going out…”

Human Rights Watch report reiterates this further (Feb 2009)

They [the LTTE] got the lists of IDPs from the GS [grama sevaka, a village official] – every family had to register there – and then visited every family several times. If anybody tried to hide their sons and daughters, they would come back at night and search the house”

Set against this we need to know how many escaped to government areas and away from LTTE and categorize them as civilians with no military training, civilians with military training, LTTE cadres in civil, others (illegal Indians) and LTTE families. We also need to establish how many Tamils were shot and killed by LTTE and how many were shot and injured by LTTE.

We also need to know how many of the above died naturally.

The numbers do not add up.

The LTTE

Led by Prabakaran, we know that LTTE had combatants in uniform as well as combatants who fought in civilian clothing. What we do not know is how many were in uniform and how many were in civilian clothing or how many in uniform changed to civilian clothing before the fight came to a close. No one especially the people calling for accountability seems to want to even answer this very basic question.

What we need to know is

·How many LTTE cadres were in uniform during the final stage

·How many LTTE cadres fought in civilian clothing & died in combat

·How many LTTE cadres fought in civilian clothing were injured

·How many LTTE cadres in uniform were injured (we also know that LTTE put injured cadres into buses and blew them up)

·How many LTTE cadres in civilian clothing surrendered (we know that close to 12,000 LTTE cadres who surrendered were in civilian clothing)

·How many LTTE cadres in uniform surrendered

The Tamil Civilians

·We know that the LTTE had trained civilians in armed combat – what we do not know is how many among the 300,000 received such training and how many were sent to combat and died as a result or were injured from LTTE firing.

·We also know that during IPKF presence the Indians too trained a civilian army to compliment their stooge Varatharaja Perumal whom the Indians planned to replace by bumping off Prabakaran.

What we need to know is

·How many civilians inside the theatre of war were civilians who had no military training by the LTTE.

·How many civilians had served as LTTE combatants during some stage in their life

·How many civilians took active part in combat and died engaged in hostilities

·How many civilians who had no training died in exchange of fire (fog of war may not determine from whose fire they died)

·Only in answering above can we determine the number of civilians who died. To qualify to be a civilian they cannot have been armed or taken part in hostilities. If so, they lose their right to civilian status and thus no one can claim them as civilians being killed by the Army.

·How many of the 300,000 were trained by LTTE in armed combat and would have killed our soldiers in the battlefield before they were saved?

·How many of the 300,000 never held a gun or was trained by the LTTE.

According to ICRC Rule 5. Definition of Civilian / Civilian Population

The phrase civilian population” within the meaning of this Convention shall include all those not enlisted in any branch of the combatant services nor for the time being employed or occupied in any belligerent establishment as defined in Article 2.”

The term belligerent establishment” is defined in Article 2 as military, naval or air establishment, or barracks, arsenal, munition stores or factories, aerodromes or aeroplane workshops or ships of war, naval dockyards, forts, or fortifications for defensive or offensive purposes, or entrenchments”.

LTTE violated the customary law principle in Article 51(7) of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions by using civilians and protected spaces for military purposes thereby making those spaces legitimate targets to the opposing side. LTTE is faulted for endangering civilian lives and infrastructure as they are prohibited from using civilians.

In the light of the above how many Tamils can be termed as ‘civilian’?

How many Tamils belonged to ‘helps/contributes/advances’ the military ‘goals/objectives’ of the LTTE? (these activities include sentry duty, building bunds, bunkers, trenches, transporting military material, even carrying dead LTTE cadres) if so these Tamils cannot be given protection of ‘civilian’ under international law in a conflict.

LTTE intentionally used civilians as a battlefield strategy – LTTE had an auxiliary force, LTTE used civilians as hostages, LTTE used civilians as human shields.

LTTE forced the Sri Lankan Military to forego attacks on legitimate targets in order to protect civilians held by LTTE or forced the Sri Lanka Military to change tactics which resulted in troop casualties which ICRC South Asia Head in July 2009 admitted. It also forced ground commanders to weigh legitimate military objective against the injury to troops and take decisions.

The Committee Established to Review NATO Bombings in Yugoslavia made clear that the decision of the Military Commander in deciding military advantage is held above that of any human rights lawyer. Just because some say casualties could have reduced if a,b,c was adopted it does not become any war crime.

The PoE itself admits that soldiers risked their own lives, helped countless ‘civilians’ attempting to escape war zone and ended up incurring heavy troop casualties to rescue over 100,000 people.

What is important to note is that civilian casualties in an armed conflict even significant in number does not establish any violation of international law as per doctrine of ‘proportionality’ in scenario of incidental injury and collateral damage. Such deaths though unfortunate were never intentional or planned (LTTE keeping civilians and firing from among civilians was planned and intentional)

Harm to a civilian cannot automatically become illegal. Illegality comes in determining those who violated the laws of armed conflict and the principles of distinction & proportionality. Clearly LTTE violated.

Let’s also not forget that the figures of dead emerged only after December 2009 after the UTHR(J) claimed tens of thousands killed” during the final months of the conflict.Between December 2009 to December 2012 even after the PoE there was NO EVIDENCE to support the figures quoted as being killed (neither credible allegations nor credible evidence)

What is clear is that no one can establish the actual population figures before the last phase to establish the number of dead as against the number saved and how to differentiate LTTE from civilians. Confounding the matter further is the possibility that population and LTTE cadres may be further obliterated by South Indian illegal populations and fighters too. No one has researched this aspect.

While the propaganda networks are spinning lies and fairytales, and UN officials are doing their best to bring to the dock Sri Lanka’s military claiming the army killed civilians without touching on how many LTTE cadres were killed or making no statement on the 5000 missing soldiers, we should not allow them to get away by namecalling and slandering.

Who killed our soldiers?

How many LTTE were killed and how can UN establish the 40,000 as ‘civilians’ and whether these deaths were outside of the legally accepted proportionality/collateral damage to claim as war crimes. UN cannot sling mud and start tribunals just so that their people can secure jobs every time new offices are opened. All of the UN tribunals when scrutinized reveal to be nothing by while elephants not doing any justice to the victims. Sri Lanka must refuse to be another victim of UN systematic lies and distortions.

There are plenty of loopholes in all of the UN/UNHRC reports/panels and their findings. They have opted to rely on LTTE fronts, LTTE propagandists and LTTE sympathizers for their ‘witness’ accounts. All these third party, 4th party versions have been brought to ZERO by Maj. Gen. Kamal Gunaratne’s book – Road to Nandikal which exposes all the lies. UN / UNSG and UNHRC should feel ashamed.

Also please draw your special attention to the Minister Harsha de Silva’s emphasis on apolitical will on economic growth.

I personally feel that it is more than enough that they have taken you along a blind allay for 3 years and almost have now fixed you against the wall at which point at least when you have to take a serious decision as what your mission should be.

As the news item reveals they are heading for a third CB scam as if what they have done for the past three years is not enough

At least now the 200 million odd people in this country desperately urge you to revert back the Central Bank to the Ministry of Finance to prevent further disasters, if you are unable to dissolve the Cabinet as advised by all legal experts without waiting any further before a major political disaster takes place. You will know it better than anybody else as to what will happen if by any means Ranil replaces you as the President of this country.

Since you are the Head of the State by law, you are finally responsible for all the commissions, omissions and blunders done by your Prime Minister and his Cabinet and the entire Government

This I think this is the fourth time I am drawing your attention to this danger, although you have not cared a damn about my advice. I am making this warning as a senior and responsible citizen of this country as I love my motherland and its people more than any present day politician.

I urge you and make this fervent request to listen to the advice given by eminent lawyers regarding the dissolution of the Cabinet, at least in self-defense, even if you are not concerned about the country or the people, to take an immediate decision and dissolve the present illegal Cabinet that will enable you to get rid of the PM and avert a major calamity without hanging on to this disastrous regime.

Mr President the time is running faster than you think. Therefore take a decision before your UNP friends overtake you by surprise at any time, may be even before sun rise for tomorrow.

If you do that and arrange for an interim Government acceptable to the people you will at least remain safely as the President until your period expires in 2019.

Attached Article

By Shamindra Ferdinando

On the instructions of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is also minister of National Policies and Economic Affairs, his deputy, Dr. Harsha de Silva has initiated talks with the Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Dr. Indrajith Coomaraswamy to iron out differences over proposed controversial National Payment Platform (NPP).

Dr. Coomaraswamy has been called for a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Management (CCEM) on Wednesday evening at Temple Trees after The Island published his confidential letter to E. M. S. B. Ekanayake, Secretary to the Prime Minister.

In his letter, dated Feb. 15, Dr. Coomaraswamy strongly opposed proposal for a separate hybrid enterprise with the involvement of the CBSL and Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) to facilitate single button transactions. Asked by The Island whether the government would go ahead with NPP against the backdrop of Treasury bond scams controversy and also in the immediate aftermath of heavy drubbing at Feb. 10 local government polls, Dr. de Silva said that he would work with ICTA and CBSL in that regard. The Deputy Minister said: “We discussed at CCEM with Governor Coomaraswamy and ICTA and agreed to come up with a possible solution shortly. I will coordinate with both sides. The objective is to create the right ecosystem for digital payments to ignite entrepreneurship in the SME sector across across the country for both domestic and export business.”

Deputy Minister de Silva stressed that the decision on NPP had been apolitical and was meant to spur growth.

Dr. Coomaraswamy succeeded Singaporean Arjuna Mahendran in June 2016 in the wake of treasury bond scams involving the Perpetual Treasuries Limited (PTL) in Feb. 2015 and March 2016.

Alleging that CBSL had been deliberately deprived of an opportunity to attend CCEM meeting on Jan. 10, 2018 at which the decision was taken, Dr. Coomaraswamy has pointed out that Sri Lanka could comfortably manage retail payment and settlement system as well as large value payment and settlement system with existing arrangements. The economist primarily opposed the project on the basis Sri Lanka with 21 mn population could manage on its own like the National Payments Corporation of India (NCCI), which catered to a staggering 1.324 bn people.

Dr. Coomaraswamy has also brought the move to the notice of President Maithripala Sirisena through Secretary to the Cabinet of Ministers, in addition to the Secretary, Ministry of National Policies and Economic Affairs, Secretary, Ministry of Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure and the Director General, department of Project Management and Monitoring.

The CBSL comes under the purview of the Ministry of National Policies and Economic Affairs.

You published Christie Blatchford’s Comment Libs have tolerance for convicted terrorists.on page NP2 in today’s paper. Wrong! . Libs have tolerance for terrorists, period, as they have shown their promotion of the Tamil Tiger terrorists in Sri Lanka since 1983.

The Liberals let the Tamil Diaspora collect $2 million a month for 13 long years during Chretien and Martin administration to stuff the Tamil Tiger war chest to buy sophisticated arms to fight the democratically elected government of Sri Lanka. for the want of their separate Tamil State, Eelam.

On May 6, 2000, the Liberal Cabinet Ministers Paul Martin (Finance) and Maria Minna (CIDA) together with 9 back trenchers patronized a $60-a-plate fund raising dinner for the Tamil Tigers, in Toronto, organized by FACT.

And on November 6, 2007, on a freezing cold evening 11 Liberal parliamentarians stood in vigil with 10,000 Tamils at Markham Recreation Ground cursing the Sri Lankan Government for bombing a meeting place held by S.P. Thamilchelvam, the leader of the Political Wing of the Tamil Tigers killing him. These MPs christened the Tamil Tigers as “Doves of Peace”: that evening only to find them mutated within weeks into “Killer Doves” as they killed scores of innocent civilians with a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber.

When will these Liberals ever learn to keep their hands in their pockets without meddling with internal business of other nations.

Dr. Mareena Thaha Reffai, Dehiwela

Mr. President, This is not the end of the world! But it is a wake up call!

I am surprised at the halla baloo created around the recent MC election results. Why is that even the President is taking the results like a General election results?

Obviously everyone knows that these results do not affect the sitting government in any way at all. True, it reflects the mentality and preferences of the citizens but it is not one to change the parliament or the Yahapalanaya mandate. So the rumor that the President is going to reshuffle the ministers, if true, is silly. There is no need to get upset about the results since it is only a municipal council election.

But certainly, Mr. President, it is a wake up call for you. You are blessed to have a wake up call; everyone are not lucky like you. Obviously people have given a clear verdict they don’t like how you are running the show, but that does not mean they want you to step down. They want you to run it better. This is a golden opportunity for you to rectify your ways!

In the aftermath of the election, you have been reminded ad nauseum that YOU ARE THE PRESIDENT OF THE COUNTRY – LOCK, STOCK AND BARREL, not of the SLFP alone. In fact when you crossed over to contest the presidential election, you should have stopped being an SLFP’er. You are now the president of the UNP, SLFP, SLPP, JVP etc. etc. including all those who did not vote for you too in the Presidential election. When you are given the post of the supreme commander of the country you’re trying to be the leader of a small group of people!

It’s time you gave up the post of Chairman of SLFP. As I wrote earlier you cannot wear two hats at the same time. Your hat approved by the whole nation is to be the President. So be the President and govern the way you promised us to, at your Presidential election campaign. You promised to wipe out corruption, put the robbers who blatantly pilfered the nation behind bars, get rid of the over crowding at the top, govern with an iron hand with truth, honesty and sincerity. And you can.

You may worry about what the SLFP will say about you in the long run, but you should be worried more so how the history of the country will write of you. You still have almost half of your term. It’s not too late yet. With Ranil, you can steer the country for the better if only you take the bold step of removing all the dead weights you have taken over in order to protect your SLFP identity, which you don’t need anymore. If anything, that is the message the people have given you at this MC election.

Please, Mr. President, the country needs you, please wake up to the call.

Consumer in Sri Lanka

Consumer in Sri Lanka is not organized as in other parts of the world in protecting and enhancing their due rights under the legal system. They accept whatever is given by the trader, manufacture, industrialist, and the state (regulator – that is the Consumer Affairs Authority) in the absence of a vigilant and a powerful consumer movement. In the United Kingdom the Consumer movement and media (with magazine WHICH” the powerful consumer magazine) are in the forefront working together assisted by – DTI Department of Trade and Industry the main regulator in UK on consumerism. Gas is a clean and cheap form of energy utilized in the household now spread in the villages as a necessity in the industry especially in the food industry in large scales, which has a direct impact on cost of living with price increases on increase of gas. Traditional methods of generating energy has replaced by gas industry monopolized by two leading giants Laughf” and Litro” (previously Shell) all over the country which has a direct impact on the cost of living. They have the countrywide network of distribution as a necessary consumer item which has a direct political and economic impact on the citizen and the state.

Why only Gas as a source of Energy

Every drop of gas which is a by-product in the oil industry, and also fond independently ( such as in Israel) is imported, stored in terminals in liquid form and distributed by the network of the two companies, now demanding price increases via the regulator Consumer Affairs Authority which has the authority under Section 18 of the CAA act to permit companies for increase of prices on an application made after due consideration by the regulator on the justification of the request having considered all aspects of the demand for the increase. Gas is a protected item under the CAA with few other items declared by a gazette notification to control the maximum price to ease the consumer in the receiving end while protecting the trader who is expected to be fair and reasonable. Gas has become so impotent by the consumer and industrialist that it has become a powerful voice of the citizen to maintain the price to combat fast growing cost of living due to other factors and price increases of food and consumer items. Traditionally Wood has been the main source of energy which has an impact on environment and leads to deforestation and environmental issues. Many other innovative methods of cheap, clean and environmental friends methods were introduced but not property marketed by the state instructions. Coconut/Paddy husk, Bio Gas, solar Energy, Energy Saving methods, and many kinds and types of alternate energy were used with no success and popular appeal.

Gas prices and cost of living

Gas prices have a direct effect and impact of the cost of living as it increases the cost of the household and the other bakery, consumer, industrial products and many food/ consumer and

manufactured items as the a main source of energy next to electricity which is expensive. Unfortunately with the increase of the gas prices the trend is disproportion price increases of all consumer items which have no control by the CAA the main regulator responsible for the price increase. CAA is expected to make a decision considering all circumstance heavily contested by the powerful companies with the legal team in higher courts which often obtain their redress with high pressure legal and political as the inquiring officers at the CAA (generally politically appointed members of the CAA board) are influenced by the Minister in charge who always takes political decisions through the political appointed Chairman who are often not competent to handle a situation. We take this opportunity to demand the State to make arrangements to appoint the CAA Chairman by the Constitutional Council to be independent and competent.

CAA the main Regulator/Player on combating cost of living

CAA as the main Player/Regulator on combating cost of living here are series of decided cases in the legal domain on this contentious issue which has a direct political and economic impact on the country as a whole for which careful consideration is necessary as a matter of compromise/importance. It is inevitable the companies will take to litigation if they are not satisfied with the new price formula. Arriving at a compromise solution may not be easy especially with the incompetent and inefficient CAA head and some members who appear not delivering goods with millions spent out of tax payer’s money for the maintance of this defunct and ineffective institution which has enormous powers to act for the public benefit. It is learnt that the President is contemplating to meet the CAA in order to find their views to combat the rising cost of living through the recently formed Apex body on handling economy!. CAA is the best available main regulator responsible to the public in combating cost of living by establishing consumer organizations and activism in educating the consumer, industrialist and trader for a proper consumer regime. How many such organizations are formed and to what extent the CAA has been in a leading role is a matter the consumer/citizen will be in a position to judge.

Way Froward

Gas is commonly used by the citizen, manufacturer and industrialist in day to day life and industry which is a sensitive topic which has direct impact and relevance to the citizen. This has to be careful handled with a short and long term solutions. Control of price increments are to be handled carefully, and long and short term changes in the CAA is a necessity by appointing able and competent head selected by the constitutional council and not on political criteria. Chairman is preforming a semi judicial functions and a person with legal background or a retired Judge is preferred. Alternate energy providers such as solar and new innovations should be explored especially cater the villages and a powerful consumer activism and formation of consumer organisations should be formed with countrywide network. Special emphasis should be given Israel way of innovative methods of generating energy with the abundance of our resources, such as solar, wind, bio, waste, and introducing various forms saving mechanisms. Let CAA start the campaign to mobilize the citizen/organizing consumer organisations/education programs countrywide with the help of legal aid unit and civil society, on 15th March 2018 the world consumer day!

Writer who takes responsibility for the contents could be contacted on sarath7@ Hotmail.co.uk

by Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

February 23, 2018, 11:14 pm

The government has, under heavy pressure from the UK, carried out its decision to recall Sri Lanka’s military attache in London, Brig. Prinyankara Fernando, despite a presidential intervention. When the government announced its decision to recall the brigadier, following an incident where he allegedly made a throat slitting gesture in front of a group of British LTTE supporters of Sri Lankan origin, in London, on Feb. 04, President Sirisena, ordered that he be reinstated.

Sources said the UK had called for swift action again the military attache.

The LTTE supporters protested near the Sri Lankan High Commission in London while Prince Edward and Sophie Wessex were in Colombo for Sri Lanka’s 70th Independence Day celebrations.

Brig. Priyankara Fernando

Sources said that the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office had informed the influential Global Tamil Forum (GTF) of immediate measures taken by the UK following the incident.

Brig. Fernando returned on Thursday (Feb. 22) hours after the GTF was informed of the specific measures taken by the British government against over the Feb. 4 incident.

Suren Surendiran, on behalf of the GTF on Feb.10, complained to Secretary of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Boris Johnson of the incident. The GTF urged the UK to declare the officer persona non grata.

Responding to the GTF’s plea, the South Asia Department of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) on Feb. 22 assured Surendiran that the UK took the incident ‘very seriously’ and Minister for South Asia personally got in touch with Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana.

By Dr. DAYAN JAYATILLEKA Courtesy The Island

February 23, 2018, 10:02 pm

I was born at a particular moment, 1956, into a center-left familial universe and culture. In 1956, Mervyn, aged 26, was introduced to SWRD Bandaranaike by his senior at university, Nimal Karunatilleke, a former Communist who had joined the MEP, the winning coalition of 1956, and whose victory in Matale, beating the feudal UNP candidate, was the first result that came in on Radio Ceylon, heralding the Silent Revolution.

SWRD Bandaranaike promptly instructed Mervyn to take over as the foreign affairs commentator of Radio Ceylon, in place of the Britisher the UNP had typically kept in that sensitive post.When Mervyn protested that he knew nothing of the subject, his proper province, including on the airwaves, being English literature and literary criticism, Bandaranaike had walked into his library, returned with an armful of books and dumped them into Mervyn’s lap. “Atoms for Peace” was the title of one, Mervyn recalled decades later.

SWRD Bandaranaike

From 1956, Mervyn was firmly of the pro-SLFP center-left in political terms while remaining temperamentally and intellectually the left-liberal he had always been.His firmest friends in 1956 were the Rajapaksas, Lakshman and George. My father was an SLFP and Bandaranaike loyalist, who was buddies with the Rajapaksas and quite fond of Mahinda. Mahinda Rajapaksa wrote in the Daily News shortly after my father’s death in 1999 that:

“Whenever I met him, which happened to be at least twice a month during the last 25 years, I always made it a point to have a serious chat even for a minute…First I came to know Mr.de Silva through my cousin the late Mr.Lakshman Rajapaksa. Both of them were regulars at the Orient Club. Being a Royalist he was also very close to late Mr. George Rajapaksa, his fellow alumni.Being only a student of politics, I remained a passive participant at the meetings Mr.de Silva had with my cousin, Lakshman and George, gathering valuable points. However I came still closer to him after I became a Member of Parliament in 1970. The frequency of meetings grew after the formation of the Sri Lanka Committee for Solidarity with Palestine, when the journalists who launched this organization elected me as its President. Mr.Mervyn de Silva was one of the Patrons.”

Mervyn was recruited to Lake House by Esmond Wickremesinghe, the present PM’s father. In a heated exchange in Parliament in 1978 over the journal Lanka Guardian which my father had founded that year, Ranil Wickremesinghe and Anura Bandaranaike hurled at each other the accusation that Mervyn had been the “blue-eyed boy” of each of their fathers! They were both right, only at different times and in different spheres of endeavor—journalism in the former case, and politics, especially international politics, in the latter.

Of course Mervyn and the present PM’s mother Nalini did not have the ambivalent relationship that Esmond and Mervyn had. She was an ideological hardliner and cold warrior, and Mervyn as Editor Daily News and she as Director and the founder’s daughter, fought out the Cold War in Lake House, much to the bemused horror of her brother and Mervyn’s boss, the Chairman of Lake House, Ranjit Wijewardene, a cultured and charming man (whose classmate my uncle had been at St. Thomas’s and whose wife had been a student of my mother’s).

My mother taught Sunethra and Chandrika at St. Bridget’s Convent and clearly urged me from her hospital bed in 1999, after my father had died, to support Chandrika against Ranil at the Presidential election late that year because she “is not a dangerous person and wouldn’t intentionally harm anyone”.

I have never taken my political or intellectual cue from my parents but the older I get the more aware I am of the influences that shaped me and the heritage I carry. Where I am at is shaped by where I am coming from.

I have tried to be loyal to what I learned from President Premadasa by warning the UNP against precisely that erroneous path that Premadasa warned his party against and the consequences of which he rescued it from against all odds. It was this disastrous path he took his party away from. The UNP has since returned to it and is determined to stay on it, though it had, very recently, the chance to turn in the correct direction. I am not going to waste my time on attempting to rectify the UNP’s political choices which stem from the very mentality that Premadasa strove to liberate it from.

My positive experience with the UNP was episodic: the last year of President Jayewardene and the turbulent, progressive years of President Premadasa, and a few post-Premadasa years with his Segundo, Sirisena Cooray (the first to be double-crossed by Ranil Wickremesinghe who owes the latter much of his modest political achievement). Throughout the rest of my decades-long engagement with politics, my relationship with the UNP, especially in government, has been adversarial, as has that of my father (despite his friendly, respectful yet sharply critical association with President Jayewardene, of whom he was a longtime neighbor).

The relationship with the SLFP and the center-left is a thicker one. Of course I had rebelled against the SLFP administration of Sirimavo Bandaranaike, and the first time I was taken for questioning was in the mid-1970s, as a teenage high school student awaiting entrance to university and member of a revolutionary left group, Mitipahara, comprising of ex-JVP and ex-Communist Party elements, and of which Rohan Samarajiva and Asoka Pieris were also members as university students.

However, because of the milieu I came from, a milieu created primarily by my father, the SLFP and the larger center-left was for the most part seen as an ally, a rearguard, a friend—unlike the UNP, which was for the most part an enemy, or The Enemy (with Premadasa an exception for Mervyn, well before he became President).

Right now, I am in a somewhat complex situation because my heritage as it were, has split. The problem is not that the daughter of SWRD Bandaranaike has gone one way, into alliance with the UNP, while the sons of DA Rajapaksa, the cousins of my father’s friends George and Lakshman, have gone another. Clearly the anti-UNP, anti-imperialist banner is with the Rajapaksa sons and not the Bandaranaike daughters.

I have no dilemmas whatsoever in that department and am confirmed in my choices when I have my weekly telephone call from LA from Auntie Roma, daughter of a founder member of the SLFP and SWRD’s aristocratic Finance Minister Stanley de Zoysa and his private secretary in the 1956 administration. Her brusque rejection of the Western ambassadors’ apprehensions about a Rajapaksa return (“none of their business”) and her instinctive aversion to the UNP-TNA bloc, overcome any attachment to the official SLFP. Her loyalty is to the founding idea of the SLFP established by SWRD and her father and their friends (she has the signed copies of the founding draft and owns the table on which the document was signed), rather than to what the SLFP has now become. Stanley de Zoysa’s secretary-daughter’s clear, unambiguous identification is with Mahinda and Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and the new political formation, in which she sees the reincarnation of the original SLFP’s moderate nationalist and progressive anti-UNP project. She is delighted by its rapid electoral success.

So my problem is not there. I am happy that the new party (‘Pohottuwa’) was founded and indeed had suggested it publicly and privately in 2015, once resulting in a dispute at ex-President Rajapaksa’s temporary residence in Mirihana in August 2015 in the presence of the whole JO leadership, with Minister Susil Premajayanth, an intelligent man I rather like and have a positive view of. My position remains that which it did from, and in, 2015. Mine was a Leninist-Gramscian position based on Gramsci’s approving invocation of Lenin’s tersely dialectical advice to Italian Communists: “Separate yourselves from Turati and then form an alliance with him”. In short, split and ally; split from, and then ally with. I strongly felt that the populist Rajapaksa project should secede from the SLFP and launch a new formation, while reuniting with it not as a single or ‘unitary’ party but as federation or confederation i.e. a united front.

Today, that united front can either be in a Transitional Government (with the JO supporting a non-UNP dominated government or an SLFP government while remaining in Opposition), or in the Opposition. The SLFP need not organizationally unite with the JO under the leadership of Mahinda Rajapaksa if it chooses not to. It can remain a social democratic or liberal nationalist party of the moderate center, while the SLPP-JO remains progressive, patriotic and populist. But the SLFP must establish a relationship with Mahinda Rajapaksa and his 45% vote base, by recognizing him as the pre-eminent leader of the anti-UNP forces.

The longer the SLFP stays in this government with Ranil as PM, the more of its 13% vote share it loses. If it remains in this government it must be provisionally, and must alter the balance of forces in the government through the impending Cabinet reshuffle, wresting away the commanding heights of the system from the UNP.

The SLFP is facing electoral extinction just as and for the same reasons that the proud LSSP and CPSL did in 1977.The possible, probable, fade out of the blue banner which my father identified with more than with any other colour in the political spectrum, saddens me somewhat. 1956 was tale of two shawls: blue (SWRD) and ‘kurakkan’ maroon (DA Rajapaksa). Towards the end of her second Presidential term, Chandrika broke the Bandaranaike alliance with the Rajapaksas of the Ruhuna, by allying instead with Mangala, the son of defector to the UNP, Mahanama Samaraweera.In 2015 she followed it up by crossing the barricades and relocating the blue banner alongside the green. She literally returned to the UNP headquarters, which her father and Mahinda’s had left, firmly shutting the door behind them.

I am delighted at the success of the Pohottuwa. My problem lies with the fate of the SLFP. I cannot regard President Sirisena as I do the UNP, as an enemy. And I cannot but be saddened at the self-destruction of the SLFP. I wish to see the blue banner flying in its rightful place next to the maroon, on the opposite side of the barricades as the green, someday soon. In 1956, the maroon was the ally and adjunct of the blue, but this time around, in the 21st century, the roles will have to be reversed.

By Lucien Rajakarunanayake Courtesy The Island

February 23, 2018, 11:03 pm

A fortnight of jiggery-pokery in politics has now led to big talk about a Cabinet reshuffle.

Can any shuffling of this set of politically crooked persons engaged in bad government bring anything good for the people? The two weeks of a power struggle within a hugely skewed team in government, and the pretense of an attempted power grab by the suddenly booming team of the continuing scoundrels in politics, and a government that could hardly bring any benefits to the people.

The proposed shuffle is a move by the President, who leads this pack of knaves, to show he is not out of the reigning knavery in this largely defeated democracy.

This pack has everything from hearts that cheat the people, diamonds that hoodwink the voters, spades that shovel the dirt of corruption, and clubs that beat the people to dirty profit, with kings, queens, and knaves or jacks of these four types. Of course, there are jokers too – those who believe the people are meant o be fooled.

What can this pack ever achieve, however much it is shuffled? In the three years since they were elected by the people, after the election of the President, they have hugely ignored the promise given to the people to fight corruption – which was the slogan of their victory, over the crooked of the past. In fact, what they did was kicking that pledge away from their stuff of governance.

Yes, there was an amendment to the Constitution, which broke the plans of the former Big Man to be in office for decades, like some of those governing knaves in Africa. The Presidency was given a shorter term. There are more signals being sent that the President does not really know the meaning of the changes he introduced, when the heat of victory was still pushing him into action. The achievements were wholly limited. The pledge to fight the clan of the earlier robbers was largely ignored.

The Greens in the pack – the UNPrincipled, UNParliamentary, UNProgressive etc – as one left-wing leaflet in the mid-1940s described them, were proved correct in full measure. The PM persuaded the President to appoint a Master Knave on crooked banking to head the Central Bank. And the Greens can hardly look clean after that.

Of course, they had loads of other dirt too, in how the National Carrier – SriLankan -was hugely mismanaged through crooked relations and dirty manipulations. They had their “Hoaxwagen” fraud hugely exposed, and their Finance Ministerial Knave did help manipulate the Bond Scam and also profited by way of millions in Perpetual Rent for his luxury penthouse, in a mastery of ignorance. And, we can certainly ask today whether success in the production of soap with Kohomba fragrance, was any qualification for a High Commissioner to the United Kingdom?

But the Blue Knavery, promoted by the Big Knave was also the stuff of the hugely crooked. The key knaves in that team won the election, but made the leap to the profits and perks of ministerial knavery. Several of them were in fact beaten by the voters, but crept into Parliament through a dirty twist to the National List. They were the rouges of the past, joining a new team of pretended Good Governance, to ensure the roguery of the past would continue.

They were doing a Dance of the Blue Knaves, in a mock performance to help the Big Knave, but their dance brought no results.

But their knavery was displayed from the start in nepotism – of brotherly appointments, the deliberate delays in probes into the crooks of the knaves of yesterday, the protection of big knaves of the past, the manipulations to prevent arrests and the call to the court of the uniformed knaves of the past. Their striking knavery was to never let the probes into the murder of Lasantha Wickremetunga, and the missing Prageeth Eknaligoda to continue as they should have.

The new performance they did after the recent election, to make a leap into the camp of the Crooks of the Past, whose flower bud was blooming, was also a dance that failed to deliver.

This is the mockery that politics and governance are facing today. The shuffling of this pack of knaves, crooks, cheats, fraudsters, and political scoundrels can bring no benefit to the people and the country. The Big Knaves can make noises about a coming re-shuffle. They are now divided in the politics of the crooked, but united in the cheating of the people.

NIRANTHA EDIRISINGHE Courtesy The Island

February 23, 2018, 10:06 pm

So Mahinda Rajapaksa [MR] is back with a bang, a huge bang, which has left the government with no clue whatsoever of what actually hit them. After he lost the 2015 election, many a cat call emerged asking him to retire from politics, suggesting that his days were over. But I firmly believed that MR had the right to remain in politics as he obtained 5.8 million of votes, just 4 lakhs of votes short of his opponent. In Asia, politicians cannot retire on their own. They can only be retired by the people. When people decide that enough is enough, the politicians lose the crowd support and will find themselves lost in their own backyard. MR has continued to remain as the most popular leader in the country, and the only people who wanted him to retire were the politicians who feared him. What makes it special is that more than 70% of Sinhala people had voted for him in the 2015 Presidential election, which is why he cannot retire. The Sinhala people are the majority of this country, and no one in his proper senses can argue that MR was rejected in that election and I would say he was only “Defeated” not “Rejected.” The word “Rejection” can be used in the 2010 Presidential election, as MR had beaten his opponent by a massive number of votes which counted to 18 lakhs. The scenario was completely different in 2015 where he got thumping majorities in the South and won most of the electorates in the country, so the endorsement of the majority of the Sinhala people goes a long way and he cannot back away or mind his own business; thus betraying all those Sinhala voters who trusted him.

Most Tamil and Muslim people believe that MR is a Sinhala leader. What they have meekly forgotten is that he ended a terrorist war that crippled the country for over 30 years, and gave us all citizens the right to live and a freedom of movement that no other country can boast about. Had he arranged for the Provincial Council election in the North just after he ended the war, he could have mustered at least a simple majority and continue ruling that region with an iron grip, using the Tamil politicians who were on his side. The TNA wouldn’t have had much clout as they were endorsing whatever the LTTE did, and they lacked the ability to regroup as a political force moving away from the LTTE ideology. But MR didn’t play politics then, instead he decided to uplift the basic needs and living conditions of the Tamil people. He launched a massive development drive in the North and resettled the IDPs in a very short period of time. Once he completed the development, all what the TNA had to do was to walk in to their home base as free politicians. This backfired on MR, and the TNA didn’t even thank him for creating the groundwork and freedom to be there but continued with the ideologies of LTTE.

People say that MR won the war but didn’t bring the desired peace for the Tamil people through reconciliation. To be fair by him, there was no moderate Tamil leader in sight to talk or reconcile. There was no way he could change the mindset of the old guard, namely the aging politicians of TNA.This is why we cannot expect anything fruitful to happen even in the near future, as the Tamil politicians’ mindset has not changed at all. Listening to the TNA leader R. Sampanthan’s speech in Parliament this week, one would feel that he had suddenly woken from a deep slumber. Here is the man who officially announced the LTTE decision asking the North & East people to refrain from exercising their franchise in 2005. The same man boasted that the LTTE was the sole representative of the Tamil community at that time. Not to be outdone of his racial comments, he went so far to warn the Sri Lankan government to be prepared with thousands of body bags for the SL soldiers, if they dare try to enter Kilinochchi in early 2009. Now he dares to say that the “Pohottuwa” is blooming to create Eelam, completely forgetting that he and the TNA’s actions severely dented the relationship of the Sinhala and Tamil people as a whole. For 70 years since independence, the Tamil politicians led their people to disaster creating disharmony, and they could go on for the next 70 years with no hope of a solution if their present trend of attitude continues. Mr. Sampanthan must realize, even at this late stage of his life, that the only way out is to come down on their stance on Federalism and their concept of self-determination.

No way will the Sinhala majority allow removing the Unitary status of this country, and there is no other leader in this country capable, other than MR, to negotiate a suitable deal in this regard. The government too must realize that MR is the key and cannot be kept aside in decision making, and it is only MR who can convince the Sinhala people of any negotiable solution as the Local Council election results have given the people’s verdict in black and white. They are prepared to trust in MR and he is perhaps the only person the Sinhala people wish to listen to. With great power comes great responsibility and MR who has that power is a seasoned politician to understand that reality.Like any other human being, MR made glaring mistakes in his last years of governance, yet it is beyond doubt that it was MR who was responsible for the greatest and the most rapid development the country has ever seen after we gained independence.

The present government that ousted MR sighting his government was corrupted to the core has so far virtually done nothing to change the pattern of governance. We now have a coalition government which has no clue of what “Good governance” means, allows daylight robberies to take place under their own noses, such as the Central Bank bond scam. Development has come to a standstill, the economy is in ruins, and the only thing this government wished to achieve in the last 3 years was to deprive MR of a “Come back”. The general public has fallen from the frying pan to the fire with not a day passing without a public protest of some sort. Both the UNP and SLFP are “honeymooning”, blind to the fact that people go through severe hardships due to rising prices of all essentials. Now the people are once again trying to find solace through MR, the only other option available in the horizon. We don’t have an official Opposition in Parliament now, as the JVP and TNA are pussyfooting with the government. The joint opposition may not be the “Angels of Heaven” as one is to expect, but their strong presence with MR as their leader is the only available force which keeps the government in check at present. Whether we like it or not, if the present trend continues, MR will never be allowed to retire by the people as they would find him as the only savior to pull our country out of this mess. The present government is digging their own grave by not seriously solving the issues of the country, but have been only working overtime for the last 3 years to deprive MR’s resurgence; thus failing pathetically in everything what they do and the February 10 election says it all.

We all must realize the true fact that there have been no good governments in our country after 1977. Every government was corrupt but they were shielded by the presence of terrorism until 2009. Though MR gave our country the greatest development ever, the new freedom he created through the absence of terrorism, and the newly formed social media exposed the corruption that prevailed, boomeranged on MR which paved the way to his downfall. Corruption cannot be annihilated. It is a myth in the present world. Corruption can only be controlled, but that too to a very limited extent in the present day world. Not many will agree with me, but whether we like it or not our voters will have no option but to create a government that would develop the country with corruption in existence.

This is the bitter truth we will have to face, and MR has a lot to prove if he wants to be back in the saddle. He cannot be President again but a “Leader” necessarily need not be a “Captain” at all times. He should be able to humbly accept the mistakes he had done in the past which cost him dearly, and he should realize that through his downfall, the entire country is in a mess at present, and he is partially responsible. He has a huge vote base and the majority of the Sinhala people depend on him to restore the lost prestige of our nation as a whole; and to achieve that, he has to regain the trust of the right thinking people by promising not to repeat the mistakes he did in his former tenure.

Editorial Courtesy The Island

February 23, 2018, 10:01 pm
Sri Lanka’s latest global Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) ranking proves the present government has failed to make good on its main election promise. All anti-corruption circuses we were treated to during the last three years have been in vain in spite of yahapalana politicians’ rhetoric.

Sri Lanka has been ranked 91st out of 180 countries on the CPI index. It has moved up four slots but its score (38) hasn’t improved at all, compared to 2014; it is well below the average score of 44 for the Asia-Pacific region. In other words, the country remains almost where it was under the previous government in spite of the present administration’s promises to eliminate corruption. What has gone wrong?

Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL), the local arm of Transparency International, which prepares the CPI, has identified several factors which prevent this country from achieving progress in its fight against corruption. It says people continue to be troubled by corruption in the public sector despite the strengthening of anti-corruption agencies through constitutional means. This points to the failure on the part of the incumbent government to ensure the smooth functioning of anti-corruption mechanisms which are already in place. TISL has attributed this situation to a lack of bureaucratic and political will as evident from the delay in the implementation of the legal reforms such as the National Audit Bill, which has been put on hold indefinitely.

One cannot but agree with TISL that the aforesaid factors have taken a heavy toll on the present government’s anti-corruption campaign. It may also be argued that the public perception of corruption, as reflected in the country’s CPI score, stems from a sense of hopelessness prevalent among the people owing to the hypocrisy of the anti-corruption crusaders who themselves have been found to be utterly corrupt.

The present-day rulers campaigned on an anti-corruption platform in 2015 to engineer a regime change and, in the process, raised public expectations beyond measure. People, who were highly taken up with what was made out to be an all-out war on corruption, expected quick results. They wanted the former rulers, accused of having stolen public funds and carried out various mega rackets at the expense of the country to be brought to justice immediately. After all, the yahapalana leaders said they possessed irrefutable evidence and all crooks would be arrested and arraigned on charges of corruption overnight. But, instead of making arrests and taking action to curb widespread waste and corruption, the new government committed the biggest ever financial crime within weeks of its formation.

Despicable attempts by the government leaders to cover up the mega bond scams left the public disillusioned and resentful. People were awaiting an opportunity to give vent to their pent-up anger. The government kept on postponing elections but had to conduct the local government polls eventually. This may explain why it suffered a debilitating electoral setback a fortnight ago.

What is really disconcerting about the present situation is that people have apparently taken corruption for granted after mistakenly pinning their hopes on the yahapalana leaders who undertook to create a clean Sri Lanka. Corruption was the main reason why most people voted against previous government in 2015. But, three years on, they have overwhelmingly backed the same leaders of that administration. It cannot be thought by any stretch of the imagination that people have done so because they think the allegations of corruptions against those leaders are false. In this small country, people know politicians for what they really are and don’t get so easily duped. A plausible explanation of the landslide victory of the former rulers may be that, given a choice between several groups of equally corrupt politicians, people did not take corruption into consideration when they voted; they considered other factors such as efficiency in deciding whom to vote for. This kind of attitude, smacking of listless unconcern, nourishes corruption. There lies the rub.

How aware are the Governments of the US & India that their two envoys are going overboard with or without their knowledge in the interference into the internal affairs of Sri Lanka? An unprecedented number of Indians have been roped into America’s diplomatic service and at times we can but wonder whether they are serving the US interests or a greater Indian hegemony that India is now eyeing believing it is on par with the likes of China & West. However, the manner that the US & Indian envoys have been blatantly violating every protocol in the manner they behave and issue statements is appalling. It is nothing that the public of Sri Lanka like or appreciate and it only embarrasses and exposes the spinelessness of the government in power as well as reduce any respect for both US & India in the eyes of the citizens.

The first visit of every foreign delegation that arrives in Sri Lanka is to the North/East & to see only Tamil or Muslim politicians. This is becoming a real joke to observe. LTTE killed all communities. Military offensive was against LTTE terrorists not minorities. Majority of victims were Sinhalese. Why have Sinhalese & Muslims been left out of any post-conflict dividends? Why is India & US blatantly violating all protocols of diplomatic behavior?

The Vienna Convention of 1961 provides a clear framework for diplomats in carrying out their duties.

Article 41 clearly outlines how a diplomat should deal with internal matters of the ‘receiving country’.

‘not to interfere in the internal affairs of the State’

‘premises of the mission must not be used in any manner incompatible with the functions of the mission’

How does this correspond to the manner the US envoy declared it would assist in helping Sri Lanka draft a new constitution & partner with its military?

Atul Keshap in 2014 (before becoming US envoy) in an interview declared It’s been five years since the war ended and I haven’t seen any meaningful discussion or movement along the lines of a meaningful negotiation of the very tricky political issues related to federalism.” http://www.asiantribune.com/node/86881

The US through USAID using local NGOs like CPA have been running workshops to promote federalism throughout Sri Lanka since 2005 and these are the very players tasked to draft the new constitution http://asiantribune.com/node/91202

In September 2017 the US envoy held meetings with the leader of the GTF whose organization was proscribed as a LTTE front under UNSC Resolution 1373 in April 2014 & removed in 2015 by the present government on the flimsy excuse of reconciliation. This is what US envoy tweeted following the meeting Pleased that Father Emmanuel is striving to secure lasting equality, peace, justice, & happiness for all in a united, reconciled #SriLanka,”

On 13 February 2018 both US & Indian envoys called on the President & Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. Hectic discussions to salvage the outcome of the Local Government election sent shockwaves to both countries that helped steer regime change. The US supporting the international propaganda campaign against the previous government through the UNHRC Resolutions plus diplomatic demarches & influence over local NGOs & media while the Indian exerted its might tapping its trigger points in Tamil vote base, Estate Tamil vote base, politicians, political parties, & ‘academics’ on Indian payroll.

In 2013 the Swarnahansa Foundation sent a letter of complaint to the US envoy against a US diplomat who had visited Navatkuli to question the Sinhalese who returned to their original homes. This was the same diplomat who was exposed by the Sunday Leader newspaper for links with Sun Master of the TNA to whom an unrehabiliated LTTE cadre had been supplying signed but blank UNHRC submission forms to submit to the OHCHR & OISL investigators.

USAID ‘Election Support through Voter Education Program’ in July 2014 would have helped the regime change that took place in January 2015. Rs.190m had been allocated for this program to be rolled out through NGOs. It fitted well into Ranil’s one-month grooming stunt in the US the same month. The Sunday Times editorial on February 8 2015 noted: It is an open secret that the former US Ambassador in Colombo reached out to the Opposition, especially the then Leader of the Opposition [Wickremesinghe]” and moved away from engagement with former President Rajapakse. The 100 day program was a clear giveaway of US sponsored regime change.

In 2016 some 50 research assistants from the Sri Lanka Parliament was sent for training to a workshop organized by USAID for which Rs.73m had been allocated – what does this all eventually add up to?

The setting up of the YouLead youth program echoes other initiatives that were part & parcel of US destabilizing operations – same USAID funded Cuban musicians in a covert program set to create a network of youth to be their ‘change’ operatives. ZunZuneo was Cuba’s Spring. In Ukraine, USAID partnered with Omidyar Network to kickstart the Kiev Spring. USAID has also ‘trained’ 100,000 Brazilian police in 1960s and many died as a result, USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy began pouring funds into opposition groups opposed to Haiti’s Aristide in 1990s, USAID donated $35m for mass sterilization program in Peru in 1990s, in 2006, the Washington Post revealed a covert $2 million USAID helped the moderate” Palestinian Authority’s election bid against Hamas. Is it no surprise that Russia closed down USAID in 2012?

Knowing the nature of USAID, some of its operations in Sri Lanka should raise more than a few eyebrows when $60m has been allocated for 2015-16 alone especially when the present USAID head was formerly working in Kosovo the newly created independent state. Former Times of Ceylon journalist Hassina Leelarathna revealed that USAID had allocated $3.4m towards UNP victory in August 2015. http://srilankaexpress.org/usaid-3-4m-support-unp-2015-elections Rajapakse himself is on record to say the US had spent $650m to get rid of him.

In August 2017 the trade unions were up in arms against the intention of the Ministry of International Trade & Development Strategies to work with USAID to advise on changing Sri Lanka’s labor laws & worker rights. In US many a worker commit suicide on account of their hire & fire schemes when after arriving to work they discover they have no job!

In a crass interference in internal affairs the US envoys tweet is self-explanatory “Conveyed warmest #Pongal greetings to Chief Minister Wigneswaran and had a good discussion on Northern Province issues as well as the need for #SriLanka to fulfill its Geneva commitments to ensure lasting national reconciliation and a brighter future for all its citizens,” Mr Keshap tweeted.

The interference of foreign envoys brings to mind the 1991 expulsion of the British High Commissioner David Gladstone by the Premadasa Govt for interfering in local elections.

The role of India in destabilizing Sri Lanka is nothing new and a factor Sri Lanka’s Governments have taken too lightly. Its scope of influence has only enlarged making India exert influence in virtually all spheres of life in Sri Lanka. Ajit Doval is said to have been the main driver of India’s role in the recent regime change.

India suffers a misconception that Sri Lanka can be used as India’s punching bag as and when it pleases. We have not forgotten or will forgive India for the 30 year suffering caused to the citizens by helping and fanning LTTE terrorism allowing Tamil Nadu to be used as a logistics hub by LTTE over the years and allowing Tamil Nadu politicians to exert unwarranted calls for a Tamil Homeland in Sri Lanka when ideally it should be in Tamil Nadu where 98% of world Tamils reside.

India has been exerting influence through its various deputy missions in Jaffna, Kandy, Hambantota culturally, economically, socially and even diplomatically. The pressure exerted to sign the ETCA allowing Indians to live, work & set up businesses in Sri Lanka is detrimental to the demography of the country which Sri Lanka’s politicians & advisors seem not to have the brains to realize. Imagine a country with over 1.3billion population being allowed to arrive live, work in Sri Lanka with a population of just over 20million? Already we are being dumped with everything India wants to throw away. Sri Lanka has become the garbage yard for India. India has exerted control over the government in many ways – Sampoor was simply a farce, Mattala airport was to turn it into an Indian airbase, Trinco oil tanks was merely to turn a very strategic area into an Indian naval base, Colombo port was also to stifle Sri Lanka’s development. Do our leaders have an iota of brains to understand that a fully functional Colombo & Hambantota Port would reduce profits for Chennai & Singapore ports, isn’t this why they want to have stakes in Sri Lanka so that they can mitigate and reduce Sri Lanka’s capacity to develop on its own?

How is it that large caches of arms & ammunition are suddenly appearing after the regime change culminating in an entire bus getting burnt following a grenade/bomb explosion a few days back resulting in armed forces personnel getting injured too. LTTE cadres are even being recruited to the Sri Lankan Army! Let’s not forget that the Tamil Nadu Liberation Army continues to exist in India.

The manner that India allows its fishermen to blatantly violate the international territorial boundaries using banned bottom trawlers thus stealing Sri Lanka’s fish and destroying Sri Lanka’s maritime areas goes unnoticed under the façade of diplomatic pressure exerted on Sri Lanka using Tamil Nadu filmstar politicians. It has become a joke to see Indian fishermen getting arrested enjoying free food and then being released while they make off with the profits and Sri Lanka is forced to enter discussions to come to an agreement where the violations of India are completely ignored. It is no different to the manner India is now interfering & meddling into the internal affairs of both Nepal & Maldives.

In fact none of India’s neighbors can boast to have any good relations with India and whose fault is it? India as a result of its own self-elevated superior attitude, has created for itself diplomatic debacles one after the other in all of the South Asian countries that surround it. Instead of being jealous of development of other countries and trying to stifle them is it not better for India to improve India’s own poverty & other ills first? How can India complain of other countries interfering into India’s internal affairs when India is doing exactly that in other countries!

The US & India may have brought this government to power & are trying their best to keep this government in power but the local government elections together with the postal votes reveal that not only the general public have lost confidence in the government but the public sector has too & the results are a clear denunciation of the government & the interferences by US, West & India into Sri Lanka’s internal affairs.

The manner that US & India behave is no different to a child throwing tantrums just because he cannot get the candy he wants.

Ratanapala

22 Feb 2018

Local Government elections have come and gone. The Sammuthiwadi Government tried their level best to postpone these elections but to no avail. It was like postponing death, but the day did come and it was as expected a devastating blow to the ‘pretenders’ of Yahapalanaya. The day of reckoning has to come, it has come and it is on them now!

Quite regardless of the outcome, quite regardless of the pre-election vituperative and the vitriolic utterings (which are at most times just a side show for the benefit of the public,) it behooves the President of this unfortunate nation to address the citizens and thank them for a well conducted election and on the choices they have made in the name of democracy and good governance. After all it is people’s verdict and a testimony on 3 years of Yahapalana conduct.

He should be a level above others and show by example he could be above politics at least for a moment. This was what he promised when taking over as President – that he would be different, that he would be an adjudicator and not a partisan. Alas it was not to be. It is now over 12 days since the elections, the President of the country is yet to face the nation and at least thank the miniscule who had faith on him and voted in his favor. This he has not done so far. This clearly shows the character of the man who we now call our President.

To understand this unbecoming conduct of a man, one has to look at who Sirisena is?

Maithripala Sirisena never aspired to be President. He never dreamt that he would one day be President of Sri Lanka. His only dream was becoming the Prime Minister and joining the ranks of Ratnasiri Wickramanayake and D M Jayaratne and fading into political oblivion. He is a ‘luck by chance’ President. According to Tissa Attanayake the former Secretary of the UNP, part of the coup to dislodge Mahinda Rajapakse was hatched at the Naga Vihara in Kotte with Maduluwave Sobhitha as President of Saadharana Samajayak in the lead. At one time this deluded priest too was a contender for President among others that included Shirani Bandaranayake former Chief Justice and Karu Jayasuriya instead of Ranil – who was discarded as ‘un-marketable’. At this time, they apparently had prior knowledge that Sirisena would be joining them with 35 other SLFPers to help the overthrow Mahinda Rajapakse. He was to be given the post of the Prime Minister for this favor – a position he wanted but denied in favor of aging and do nothing DM Jayaratne. When it became apparent that the UNP – who was until then insisting that a UNPer should be contesting for President – had no takers nor backers that Sirisena became the ‘luck by chance’ contender and in the ensuing melee’ the President of Sri Lanka. It is a sordid tale of treachery and how history repeats bringing unsavory characters to leadership of nations!

Sirisena talks of Sammuthiyawa as if he is part and parcel of the whole Sammuthiyawa Concept. It is not true. The bogus Sammuthiyawa – consensus politics also termed Lichchavi Palanaya was plotted in the US/ UK and that was where Ranil was coached on this ploy as a means to topple the Mahinda Administration, taking the sensibilities of Sri Lankans, majority of whom are Buddhists and their culture into account. Sirisena is only an ungrateful, unpatriotic, unprincipled and uncouth person who was tapped on the shoulder by Robber Queen of Horagolla ( a very apt Sinhala name _ Horagolla means – The Thieving Lot ) Chandrika Kumaranatunge (herself a decendant of a spy who betrayed Sri Lanka and became rich) to betray his party and colleagues at the right time. The disinformation campaign aided by Mahinda’s authoritative style of government and the votes of Racist Tamils together with Jihadist Muslims helped topple Mahinda Rajapakse administration.

Sirisena simply does not have what it takes to make a leader having being a subservient follower and not a leader all his life. He does not have a political ideology he can call his own. All he has is a hotch-potch of ideologies, most of them contradicting each other – part Marxist, part capitalist, part liberal and probably parts he picks up from the latest gossip columns in Newspapers. All he has is unmitigated and unquenchable ambition, greed and a certain amount of cunning – which are his readily seen political attributes or what he has picked up doing backdoor dirty politics over the years. He came to know of the ruse – Sammuthiwadaya – Consensus Politics only after betraying his party and colleagues in November 2014. Even though today after 3 years in office he is trying hard to portray as a leader his whole demeanor and actions belie his real nature and character.

The suit never fits, though he has tried different attires at different times and at different occasions. He has tried local and foreign attires, suits of different colors and even padding to straighten his ever sagging back without success. It is the same with his work, approach towards politics. Unguarded utterings full of vituperative, anger and sheer hatred – qualities, all of which are the very antitheses of his name – Maithree, has prompted his former boss Mahinda Rajapakse to exclaim Is he the same Maithree we knew before”?

Even as he was being made up as the President of Sri Lanka, his political future was doomed. In the first place, he takes up his new position under obligation to the UNP, which had serially failed in finding a leader who could outdo the opposition. Even though he tries to imagine that 6.2 Million voted for him personally in Jan 2015, that is not true. It was simply an anti- Mahinda vote – the deciding vote coming from Racist Tamil and Jihadi Muslim votes. These are all block votes that reflect the political positions their leaders take to further their political objectives – nothing more. Among these voters there is no democracy. For the Racist Tamils the times have not changed even though Prabhakaran is dead! For the Jihadist the times have not changed even though Bin Laden is dead! Their ideologies continue and their acolytes – the TNA and Jihadist parties the Muslim Congress and other variants continue their expansionist policies to bring Sri Lanka under their domination, physically – acquiring territory, demographically by population increase and financially by dominating economic interests and strategic economy centers.

The fall of Mahinda Administration was brought about by a severe disinformation and regime change project run from the US as well as from India. Ranil was simply their acolyte. This was aided by Mahinda Rajapakse’s arrogance and foolhardy acts that followed the 2010 elections and those of his sons. Although there are still millions that throng around him out of gratitude, he has tainted his record of going into history unblemished as one of the great leaders in Sri Lanka’s history who managed to unify the country.

Sirisena has been used as a cat’s paw to cover up many misdeeds of the Yahapalana fiasco. As soon as Yahapalana Admin came into being they did not waste any time. They knew that there was no money coming from their erstwhile backers the Christian West or from India. This is why they set up the Central Bank Bond Scam and all that followed later. It is no secret now that Sirisena helped cover up the Central Bank Bond Scam that took place less than seven weeks into his administration. It is now apparent that Sirisena was ‘used’ in the appointment of Arjuna Mahendran as the Governor of the Central Bank. Sirisena carry the ultimate responsibility of appointing a foreign national to the post Governor of the Central Bank post. He showed his gratitude to Ranil by dissolving the parliament in June 2015 and preventing the DEW Gunasekara COPE Committee report over the first Bond Scam that took place on 27 Feb 2015 being tabled in Parliament. This led to a series of Bond Scams culminating in an even bigger scam on 29th and 31st of March 2016, the Central Bank still under the stewardship of Arjuna Mahendran and his son-in-law Arjuna Aloysius performing as a Primary Dealer. He is the President of Sri Lanka and the Commander in Chief. He has no business to abdicate responsibility feigning ignorance or coming to know of these crimes only through the newspapers. So many other financial crimes have taken place during his current tenure as President. These include – Sri Lankan Airbus deals, Norochcholai Coal Deals, Cental Highway deals among many others.

Now Sirisena has to carry the can no matter what for having wilfully helped the perpetrators of the Bond Scam in its execution as well as in the cover-up that followed. Now like the proverbial cat that crapped on a slab of rock, he is licking crap doing his level best to cleanup his soiled skin! He too as the head of the Cabinet is responsible for other financial misdeeds of his administration.

Just as much as Sarath Fonseka is only a political non-entity today, Sirisena too will don the same shoes when he is out of power for he has no popular power base. Those who are crowding around him singing hosannas are the same who sang similarly around Mahinda Rajapakse a few years ago. They are only around him for the perks that they can get using his position as the President. They will dessert him just as same as how they left Mahinda, soon after he was out of power. However, unlike Mahinda, it would be expecting too much to think of a future political base for Sirisena in a post-Sirisena era!

Sirisena does not have what it takes to be a national leader let alone a statesman. Time and time again he has proved himself to be a conniving sly fox, nothing else. If he has even an ounce of decency left he should apologize to the nation and resign his post as President, for the harm he has brought on the nation of Sri Lanka since his coming into power.

Patriotic people of Sri Lanka realized their mistake on 9 Jan 2015, but had to wait till 10 Feb 2018 to prove their point. In between what happened was sheer political ignominy!

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

President Maithripala Sirisena says he decided to establish National Economic Council to strengthen the national economy by formalizing the economic management in the country.

He said that the objectives of NEC are to increase the export income and develop the local industry.

He pointed out there is a need for a stronger program for the development of the agriculture. ( like Dudley??or for Dudley ?)

The National Economic Council aims at fulfilling the government’s responsibility for the development of industries”, he said.

He stated that the National Economic Council was established after the discussions with the representatives of World Bank, International Monetary Fund, local and international economic specialists and also Sri Lankan specialists, working abroad.

President Sirisena emphasized that the government will not sign any free trade agreement which will bring injustice or challenge to the local industries and entrepreneurs. ( ETCA ?)

He said some groups that are not related to the business sector are making the business community scared by giving them false information.

The government is getting into the free trade agreements with foreign countries only by protecting local industries,” he said ( humbug !)

.The President pointed out that the state patronage for the development of local industries was not sufficiently done in the past. He said the government will implement a new program within next few months to encourage and guide small and medium scale entrepreneurs.

Government is only talking about agriculture and livestock etc .It seems that concept of BLUE ECONOMY based on harnessing vast resources in the ocean surrounding our country is neglected ?

As an example emerging concept of the Blue Economy has been embraced by the Government of Seychelles as a mechanism to realise sustainable economic development based ,around an ocean-based economy.

Seychelles intention is to implement the Blue Economy concept at the national level as a framework to foster an integrated approach for sustainable development programmes. The critical gap however, is the mechanism for its implementation at the national level. Limited, if any, practical information is currently available to countries, notably small states, wishing to implement these concepts.

This is predominately so, as information that does exist focuses primarily on land-based economic development or has a strong focus on conservation rather than on the sustainable use of the investment in an ocean-based economy for national benefit.

( Rice ,Live stock only ??? )

This roadmap will necessarily require the definition of short, medium and long-term actions across a broad range of sectors and will also require fundamental changes to the traditional institutional arrangements that exist to support management of marine sectors and resources in Sri Lanka

A coordinated, whole of Government approach will be a necessary condition for successful implementation of the Blue Economy.

Recent changes in the attitude of Sri Lankan Government should establish a dedicated agency to oversee completion and implementation for the Blue Economy Roadmap.

However, while Sri Lanka has existing capacity for some key sectors of the Blue Economy (e.g. fisheries) it lacks the overarching policy and strategic expertise required to make this transition effectively.

As such, the Government of Sri Lanka should seek the assistance of the Commonwealth Secretariat and the World Bank with the provision of a long-term in-country technical expert to assist the Government complete this transition effectively.In addition, up to two additional technical experts may be required on a short-term basis (6 months) to undertake specific technical activities that are expected to arise as the project progresses.

Goal

The project aims to assist the Government of Sri Lanka in developing and implementing a National Blue Economy Roadmap, the purpose being to establish the broad direction for future investment in and development of a sustainable ocean-based economy in our country.

The purpose of the specific request for long-term (and shorter-term) technical adviser(s), is to assist the Government of Sri Lanka to review, validate and implement the Roadmap and more importantly, to support Sri Lanka in its transition to a more integrated ocean-based economy.

Question is whether newly appointed Technocrats have any idea about the Blue Economy ?

As an example a recent visit by Japanese Delegation initiated by the Prime Ministry’s office consisting private companies have expressed willingness, to develop Fishery

Unfortunately some advisors in the PM’s office is only promoting implementation of Ice making Plants on Land to conserve fish caught in the deep ocean.

What our so called experts have failed to understand is that 70% of the fish brought on shore is rotten because Sri Lanka has not developed a Mother Vessel Concept to collect fish as soon as they are caught ,preserve them until they reach the shore .

Fishermen using Multiday fishing Vessels go to Ocean carrying few tons of Ice blocks to preserve fish .By the time they return after an almost three weeks, ice is melted and fish is not even good for making Dry Fish !

Almost all big fish you find in the market is not good for Human Consumption

When this delegation was taken to Dikovita Harbour ( a grandiose western style harbour facility built with foreign funding ) during wee hours of the day by my team ,they were aghast and disgusted to note that the fish unloaded in the morning by fishermen is not suitable for Human Consumption !

One polite young Japanese Lady murmured to us and asked Is this fish for dogs or for making chicken feed ?”

I took the liberty of calling PMs’ office and explained that installation of Hybrid Ice Making plants of Japanese Technology on land is not what we need.

We need MOTHER VESSELS to be anchored in the Ocean with Seawater Ice making Plants to collect them rather than waiting for three weeks

Mother vessels are Stationery Self sustained ISLANDS in the ocean which can not only provide Ice, but Fuel and .Emergency Assistance to multy-day fishing vessels of 40 to 55 feet which hardly have Ice Making Plants on Board ( They do ot even have generators on board but use batteries for night lights !)

Impact

The successful and sustainable implementation of the Blue Economy Strategic Roadmap will ultimately deliver the following outcomes:

Ocean ecosystems and biodiversity recovered and protected.

Increased investment in existing ocean-based economic sectors.

New data and knowledge on Sri Lankan ocean space available.

Marine-based aquaculture sector and marine biotechnology products and processes developed and implemented.

Protective measures and greater use of surveillance and enforcement tools provides greater protection for Seychelles.

Surveillance of offshore waters strengthened through enhanced maritime domain awareness and law enforcement. The above is expected to contribute to the goals of the Government of Sri Lanka

Capacity built and new research/data sectors developed.

Streamlined implementation with an overarching system in place.

The main beneficiaries of the project will be the Ministry of Finance, Trade and The Blue Economy. In addition, a range of government agencies/ministries that have responsibility for the management of marine resources and sectors, including Marine resources, tourism, environment management, maritime transport, economic development and investment, maritime security and offshore petroleum will also benefit.In this context Ministry of Tourism may be amalgamated with Ministry in Charge of Fishery and Aqayatic Resources ?

A broad range of relevant stakeholders and citizens will ultimately benefit from this intervention, including existing marine industry sectors, marine user groups and local communities.

Outputs

Implenantion of accelerated blue economy program ( like Mahaweli for Farmers )

Comprehensive and strategic advice provided to the Minister of Finance, Trade and the Blue Economy, Ministry Secretary and relevant stakeholders including private Sector responsible for the Blue Economy.

Strategic partnerships between Sri Lanka and our neighbours such as Maldives and Seychelles and relevant partners including, but not limited to: development agencies, private sector organizations, and marine research institutes, established and maintained.

Consistent implementation of the Roadmap across government and its respective agencies, in particular, working closely with Sri Lankan Ministry of Fisheries , Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Energy Ministry , , Ministry of Investment, Entrepreneurship Development and National Agency for Aquatic Resources etc

Blue Economy roadmap and policy for Sri |Lanka should be promoted domestically, regionally and internationally.

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

On the instructions of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is also minister of National Policies and Economic Affairs, his deputy, Dr. Harsha de Silva has initiated talks with the Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Dr. Indrajith Coomaraswamy to iron out differences over proposed controversial National Payment Platform (NPP).

Dr. Coomaraswamy has been called for a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Management (CCEM) on Wednesday evening at Temple Trees after The Island published his confidential letter to E. M. S. B. Ekanayake, Secretary to the Prime Minister.

In his letter, dated Feb. 15, Dr. Coomaraswamy strongly opposed proposal for a separate hybrid enterprise with the involvement of the CBSL and Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) to facilitate single button transactions. Asked by The Island whether the government would go ahead with NPP against the backdrop of Treasury bond scams controversy and also in the immediate aftermath of heavy drubbing at Feb. 10 local government polls, Dr. de Silva said that he would work with ICTA and CBSL in that regard. The Deputy Minister said: “We discussed at CCEM with Governor Coomaraswamy and ICTA and agreed to come up with a possible solution shortly. I will coordinate with both sides. The objective is to create the right ecosystem for digital payments to ignite entrepreneurship in the SME sector across across the country for both domestic and export business.”

Deputy Minister de Silva stressed that the decision on NPP had been apolitical and was meant to spur growth.

Dr. Coomaraswamy succeeded Singaporean Arjuna Mahendran in June 2016 in the wake of treasury bond scams involving the Perpetual Treasuries Limited (PTL) in Feb. 2015 and March 2016.

Alleging that CBSL had been deliberately deprived of an opportunity to attend CCEM meeting on Jan. 10, 2018 at which the decision was taken, Dr. Coomaraswamy has pointed out that Sri Lanka could comfortably manage retail payment and settlement system as well as large value payment and settlement system with existing arrangements. The economist primarily opposed the project on the basis Sri Lanka with 21 mn population could manage on its own like the National Payments Corporation of India (NCCI), which catered to a staggering 1.324 bn people.

Dr. Coomaraswamy has also brought the move to the notice of President Maithripala Sirisena through Secretary to the Cabinet of Ministers, in addition to the Secretary, Ministry of National Policies and Economic Affairs, Secretary, Ministry of Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure and the Director General, department of Project Management and Monitoring.

The CBSL comes under the purview of the Ministry of National Policies and Economic Affairs.

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE

A bud is a metaphor and it is one that has naturally led to over-use because it is the party symbol of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), the nelum pohottuwa. ‘The bud will bloom,’ they said with as much conviction as the rhetoricians of other parties predicted its withering. The results are out but the metaphor-play has not abated.

RajavarothiamSampanthan is the latest to have indulged. Speaking in Parliament, the veteran Tamil nationalist attacked former President Mahinda Rajapaksa conjuring up the specter of Eelam-creation in campaign rhetoric. He has a point.

Sampanthan said that Rajapaksa, as President, had talked of ‘maximum possible devolution,’ when he inaugurated the All Party Representative Committee (APRC). He mentioned also the ‘Experts Comittee’ appointed by Rajapaksa and led by Prof Tissa Vitharana. He noted that the report of this committee recommended reforms that went beyond the 13th Amendment. Of course Rajapaksa didn’t get excited about the APRC Report and Sampanthan didn’t mention this fact. On the other hand neither did he remind people that Rajapaksa had talked of ‘Thirteen Plus.’

However, Sampanthan did mention that all the members of the Joint Opposition (which morphed into thepohottuwa so to speak) had unanimously supported the Resolution to turn Parliament into a Constitutional Assembly and had participated in the proceedings of the Steering Committee appointed thereof. Neither Rajapaksa nor anyone else talked of Eelam either in Parliament or in the Steering Committee, he quite rightly points out.

All this he weighs against Rajapaksa, during the course of the election campaign saying that Tamil Eelam could bloom after the election if the people choose poorly. It was not only Rajapaksa who said it. Many of the key spokespersons for the SLPP issued that warning.

Now appointing a committee to come up with solutions does not necessarily mean that one always knew about the outcome.There was an issue with the composition of the Tissa Vitharana Committee. It was federalist-heavy. The outcome was unceremoniously dumped.

That error was repeated in the Steering Committee. Voting for turning Parliament into a Constitutional Assembly does not mean that Rajapaksa or anyone else were voting for Sampanthan’s outcome preference. There were more than one report that came out of the deliberations of the Steering Committee. Nothing concrete has come out of it.

The contradiction comes from the ‘thirteen plus’ statement and from the ‘maximum devolution’ pledge.Only Rajapaksa would know why he made such careless statements.He did make them, and that’s what counts.And that’s why Sampanthan is absolutely right in chastising Rajapaksa for what is clearly double-speak and therefore irresponsible. [Read also ‘The pluses and minuses of the 13th Amendment’]

Whether such irresponsibility on the part of ‘The lotus bud’ as Sampanthan puts it results in Eelam blooming is a different matter, however.The notion is interesting. What it implies is that there is an Eelam bud already which is not a product of the lotus bud.

What is this Eelam bud? Well, Sampanthan describes it unwittingly. Listen to him:

‘I want to put on recordthat my Party at this Election, in our manifesto, talked of a political solution within the framework of an undivided, indivisible, single country. There was no campaign carried on, anyway, in the North and East which talked of division of the country. We only talked of a solution that is acceptable to our people, that is reasonable substantial power-sharing within the framework of a united, undivided, indivisible single country.’

The bud’s right there.The Eelam bud that is.What is power-sharing if not Federalism? What is Power-sharing without talking of history, demography and geography if not devious machinations for land theft based on a myth-model? What is ‘substantial’ in this context if it is not a legitimation of a lie in its extrapolation? Rajapaksa, like others, have purchased the lie of Eelamists by indulging in vague-speak on devolution.He has bought into the Eelamist bud, knowingly or unknowingly, or else used the term carelessly and irresponsibly for petty political purposes.Sampanthan is however the real deal. He’s not playing politics-of-the-moment. He is not indulging in conveniences. He is speaking the truth of the Eelam bud.

Both men are talking ‘substantial devolution’ or ‘maximum devolution’ in a context where Eelamists have superimposed the concocted territory of ‘historical (sic) homelands’ on lines drawn arbitrarily on by the British. Such words are tossed around in a context of a constructed history, a refusal to peruse archaeological evidence to back claims, andabsolute silence on demographic and geographical realities (almost half the Tamils live outside the so-called ‘historical homelands’ while even the Eelam map shrinks when we factor in territories where communities have actually lived in for long periods of time, especially in the Eastern Province).

Against this background and the considerable Eelamists posturing by Tamil Nationalists, Samoanthan included, talking of Lotus buds blooming Eelam flowers is laughable. It makes one conclude that tossing out words such as ‘indivisible,’ ‘undivided’ and ‘single country’ is nothing but eyewash. That;s just frill in whose shade the Eelam bud can be nurtured into full bloom, remembering of course Chelvanayakam’s famous strategic plan for Eelam, ‘A little now, more later’.

Let’s get this straight.Sampanthan and the Eelamists, now in defence mode and in reduced circumstances following the military rout of the LTTE, are indulging in federalist talk.Federalism is about territories with distinct peoples voluntarily coming together. It naturally implies that having come together, any of the entities thus ‘united’ (another problematic words used by Sampanthan and his ilk) can voluntarily choose to go it alone.This is bud. This is the rub.

This is the bud that the federalists in the business of constitutional reform are carefully and surreptitiously watering and fertilizing.Rajapaksa, because of his careless of ill-advised uttering, has no moral authority to cry foul over Eelam-budding, but that does not mean people need not be concerned about it.After all, when G.G. Ponnambalam was spouting communalism, few would have thought that the 50-50 bud would bloom into a rabid terrorist outfit like the LTTE which would reduced people like Sampanthan into choirboys and cheerleaders.

The Rajapaksa camp, then, does not have the moral right to raise fears over an Eelam-bud, but it does not follow that the fears expressed are without basis. He cannot talk, but others can and must. They must because Sampanthan has clearly reiterated that there is an Eelam bud and because the entire constitutional reform project is run by lackeys of the bud-blooming project. Most importantly, they have demonstrated their utter lack of integrity in ‘process’ by refusing to enumerate grievances and by refusing to consider undeniable historical, demographic and geographical factors.It has been reduced to a process of predetermining telos and constructing conditions and modeling myths to obtain that end point.

As long as the Eelam-bud exists, then it will be named as such, Sampanthan should understand this. Just because someone doesn’t have a moral right to call it such does not mean it does not exist.Sure, various people can nurture it, but the principal gardener is the federalist. Sampanthan, if you want to put a name to it.

Passing away of a great monk !

Most Ven. Katukurunde Nyanananda Maha Thero passed away on the early hours of 22 February 2018 at the National Hospital of Colombo. He was an exemplary monk and a scholar. He was one of the few remaining students of late Matara Sri Gnanarama Maha Thero of Mitirigala Nissaranavanaya.

Most Ven. K. Nyanananda Maha Thero wrote a large number of books which were very useful to the serious practitioners of Vipassana meditation. The Maha Thero’s Dhamma series titled ‘Nivane Niveema’ and ‘Pahan Kanuwa Desana’ are quite popular both among the monastery monks and the meditating public.

The funeral will be conducted at Kirillwala Estate, Dammulla, Karandana. (Tel: 0777127454) on Friday, 23 February 2018.

Dr Sudath Gunasekara

Call to all Patriotic Citizens of this country to read the following news item, if you have not already seen this continuous Neo-colonial threats.

Please look at the following undiplomatic and uncalled-for absurd press release by the so-called Diplomatic community

Diplomatic community concerned over MR returning

Sunday Leader 20.2.2018

By Easwaran Rutnam

”The diplomatic community is concerned over the possibility of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa returning to power in the near future.

Western diplomats are believed to have raised their concerns with the Government and among the diplomatic community.

The concerns arise from steps taken by President Maithripala Sirisena to have talks with the joint opposition to form a United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) Government.

There are fears that if a UPFA Government is formed it will set the path for the return of Rajapaksa to power.

The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) led by Rajapaksa, which won the Local Government (LG) elections last week, has already called for early Parliament elections.

The SLPP has said it will support the President to bring the required amendments in Parliament to the 19th Amendment to allow the holding of early Parliament elections.

The United States, United Kingdom and EU member countries are concerned the human rights situation in Sri Lanka will return to its dark days if Rajapaksa is allowed to return to power.

Rajapaksa’s return to power could also see Sri Lanka once again lose the EU GSP plus trade concession in the event a Rajapaksa-led administration refuses to comply with the EU conventions related to human rights which the unity-Government followed in order to regain GSP plus.’

I do not propose to comment at length on the above as it is self- explanatory. However I would like to add few observations and some salt and spices for my readers benefit.

What is the role of a Diplomat of a country?

An Ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the commonwealth” so said Sir Henry Watton (1604) This may be true in an age where every nation was considered equal and diplomatic relations were maintained for mutual benefits and not for exploitation, unlike at present, an age of three dimensional war fare, where such relationships are maintained by powerful nations for one purpose and the poor for another. The powerful and rich, strictly wedded to the notion of the survival of the fittest, maintain it for keeping the week under subjugation and for exploitation through political, economic and military maneuvering. They want all smaller nations to dance according to their tunes and succumb to their dictates like a pack of meek vassals. The only country that resisted it successfully in modern times was Cuba.

Colonial powers made us poorer and destitute

Almost all smaller and less powerful nations, made poorer and destitute by the same colonial invaders for centuries, on the other hand maintain their relationships for subservience and begging at the door steps of colonial agencies like the World Bank, UN, UNICEF, FAO and ADB etc to name a few. Sri Lanka has turned out to be a classic example of this model under the present regime headed by naïve and servile leadership. During the period of colonial expansion they just invaded with the power of the gun and the sword, brutally shot and slaughtered the natives, set fire to their properties, destroyed by arson or poison and brought those who escaped their sword and gun, under their iron booted hegemonies and exploited everything that came within the invaders grip and took home to build their own Empires. Even today they do the same thing through lessor discernible and subversive methods and by destroying local patriotic leadership. This is exactly what they did in Libya, Iraq, Yugoslavia and many other places all over the globe, as if they were sent by God to kill murder and destroy all those who are not theirs. Isn’t it the same technique they are adopting in this country even at present?

2015 Conspiracies

First they removed Mahinda Rajapaksa who defeated the most dangerous and savages terrorist outfit the world ever had, the LTTE, which ran their de facto EELAM for 30 long years with their own armed forces including Air power as well and their Courts, banks, with their own currency, taxing system and administrative machinery. They also exerted their power to save the Tigers in 2015 who committed murder, arson, anarchy and disaster.

The recent Local Government election results clearly demonstrated the absolute failure of the puppet regime installed by them in Jan and August 2015 to meet even the basic needs apart from their cherished aspirations as an Independent and a sovereign nation. Nearly 65 % of the people of this country (SLPP 44.65%+UPFA 8.94% and SLFP 4.44% = 58.05%) have clearly rejected this three year no-Government regime under Ranil and firmly have declared they want a change. If we add the 6.27 the JVP polled, which is also anti UNP, this adds up to 64.30 against Ranil. That is their will and firm and absolute wish. That is why they demand an immediate change of Government. So what more proof the UNP wants to admit that it has been rejected outright. Whatever name by which the election is called, whether Local Government or General Election it is the wish of the same people that has been clearly expressed. Therefore the argument adduced by UNP that this is not a defeat, holds no water.

UK, US and EU desperately trying to give a new lease of life to LTTE and perpetuate the Sirisena-Ranil rouge and lame duck regime to destroy this country and the Sinhala Buddhist nation

The above news item clearly demonstrates that the Western powers are again trying desperately to throw their weight behind the LTTE elements, and furthermore reinstall the same corrupt and rouge outfit that has even emptied the nation’s Central Bank within 1 ½ months of coming to power in Aug 2015 and also to destroy the emerging national aspirations of the native Sinhala Buddhist Community’

Besides exerting pressure on the government these Western powers also now try to influence the other Diplomats as well to retain their favourite set in power. The following extract from the press report clearly proves their subversive attempts.

Western diplomats are believed to have raised their concerns with the Government and among the diplomatic community”.

This in my opinion is very high handed move by these Diplomats. It is also a serious violation of diplomatic norms and an infringement on the sovereignty of this country. These people should be immediately summoned at the Foreign Ministry and ask them to explain as to why they overstepped diplomatic immunity and etiquette as this amounts to interfering with the internal affairs of an independent country. Then as President Premadasa did to the British High Commissioner Gladstone the ambassadors involved should be immediately packed off to their countries.

Instead of taking such straight forward action this stupid Government keeps dead silent. How can we expect a spineless Government which cannot even stop Vignesvaran, one of its Provincial Council Chief Ministers, making representations to foreign governments, both in Colombo and abroad against the very Government under which he comes? This reminds me of the famous Sinhala adage’ nivata karanavemiya dutuwana eluwath nikata panawa’

UK, US and EU concerns born out of jealousy

‘The United States, United Kingdom and EU member countries are concerned the human rights situation in Sri Lanka will return to its dark days if Rajapaksa is allowed to return to power’.

Why are they concerned over the possibility of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa returning to power in the near future? He is the choice of the majority of people in this country. Don’t they have the freedom to elect their own leader as a free and sovereign State? Democracy is their concept which defines it as majority rule. All their countries go by this same rule. If they can do it, why can’t we do it the same way? We only have followed their criterion of choosing our leader. Why this double standard and naked hypocrisy. Do they want us to define democracy as the dictatorship of the minority?

Why should Rajapaksa, be a problem to them. He is not going to rule their countries. He will only be in charge of this small Island. Isn’t it shear jealousy and anger against him for defeating the LTTE and for not listening to their dictates in 2009 to stop the war and hand over Prabhakaran to them in order to re-arm him to destroy this country and the Sinahla Buddhist nation. MR only followed the footsteps of our ancient Kings, with the able support of Gotabhaya (modern Lankanatha), like a true patriotic leader of this nation in protecting his motherland for which the people of this country, especially the Sinhala Buddhist majority hail him as their hero leader of modern times, when all other so-called leaders are falling on their shivering fours before the West and India and hiding their tails between the hind legs in front of the Tigers.

The cat has now come out of the bag when they say human rights situation in Sri Lanka will return to its dark days if Rajapaksa is allowed to return to power. Whose human rights they are talking about is the most pertinent question. They also have miserably failed to understand that MR was the man who rescued this country from 30 years of unprecedented terror, mayhem, fear and destruction. So how can they call 2005-2015 as dark days of Rajapaksa. Do they know that he was the first man who covered the whole Island with a first class network of highways after Governor Henry Ward (1855-1860).

Where these champions of human rights and what were they doing, when Prabhakaran was at the height of rampage against this country and its people for 30 years?

Where were these so-called International communities sleeping when Prabakaran and his murderers were at the height of rampage, savagely and brutally slaughtering innocent men and women and even children sucking at their mothers breast and Buddhist monks in thousands and carrying out mass murder all over this Island, at the Airport, in busses , highways, inside their own houses when they were sleeping in the dead of night, in their paddy fields, places of worship when they were observing Sill at the Sacred Bo tree at Anuradhapura and when they demolished the Temple of the Tooth, the Sacred palladium of the entire Buddhist world, when they destroyed the Nation’s Central Bank in the capital and the Nation’s premier Airport, when they were murdering all promising future political leaders of this country like Atulathmudali, Gamini Dissanayaka including their own like Amithalingam, Doreappa (Jaffna Mayor), Thiruchelva and Premadasa the President of this country and the Prime Minister Rajiv of India and when thousands of Tamil children were snatched from their parents and schools, conscripted and used as cannon fodder depriving their parents of their loved ones, threatening thousands of Tamils to flee the country for their lives seeking refuge status, presently who live in their countries as self-styled Tamil Diaspora.

Were they not human right violations or were they not human right violations, according to their dictionaries. Only now they talk of this bullshit, as if they have risen from their deep false slumber, on behalf of Tamil immigrant voters living with them, their financiers and vote banks. Doesn’t this clearly show their naked duplicity and double standards? Doesn’t this clearly prove their anti-Sinhala Anti-Buddhist attitude in this game to satisfy the Tamil voters in their countries and Tamil Diaspora who fund them lavishly with their ill-gotten money through drugs, narcotics and human smuggling and other illicit activities?

Withdrawing EU GSP plus trade concession is another colonial threat.

Loosing the EU GSP plus trade concession in the event a Rajapaksa-led administration refuses to comply with the EU conventions related to human rights is another issue they have raised”.

How long they took to re-install this bait after 2015 elections. I am not aware as to how much we get even now. See how shrewd these Westerners are. As if we are living only on this penny as our life saving jacket. We never died during the time they stopped this damn thing. What is more is even we survived the worldwide economic recess at that time without their GPS plus.

The sleeping Giant Joint Opposition; Why not rise, like the Phoenix from the ashes, as sons born to lion parentage

What are those who emerged victorious at the Feb 10th elections going to do, I do not know. Are they going to adopt the same lame duck attitude and wait or resort to the same approach they followed for the past 3 years while the Government was even transgressing the Constitution of the Republic blatantly? For example in cases like the appointment of the Prime Minister, Chief Justice, Leader of the Opposition, appointing defeated candidates at the 2015 Elections as Cabinet and other Ministers, appointing the Chief Organizer of the Opposition and singing the National Anthem at the Galle Face on Independent day celebrations and allowing Tamils to sing it publicly in Tamil at national events and schools in the North, and the East as if already the EELAM is established on Sri Lankan soil and as if there are two distinct nations in this country could be cited as few glaring examples.

I call upon these sons of lion parentage to rise like the Phoenix from the ashes from their deep slumber and mobilize the masses to rescue this country and the nation before it is too late. This is the best time for a Dutugemunu or a Vijayabahu to emerge before the Feb 10th public mandate gets again converted to a flicker and finally get extinguished.

I am wondering as to why at least now they don’t seek assistance from powerful countries like Russia, China and Pakistan, who are our real friends, and mobilize the masses to defeat these conspiracies, chase out the rouges in the seats of power and install a patriotic Government of the people, for the people and of the people (a Mahasammata Rajyak) as it had been here for 2600 years. Thereafter deport all unfriendly Ambassadors and discontinue all diplomatic relations with them, until they accept our independence and freedom and make a start at least now to rebuild this country as a peaceful, prosperous and vibrant nation in this 21st century brave new world.

If you fail to respond the masses might revolt against all politicians? If that happens will the US and EUC invade this Island nation and do what they did to Libya, Iraq and Czechoslovakia. All these dangers are hanging over the heads of this nation now. Direct foreign intervention is very unlikely, partly, as they have enough problems of their own and moreover they will not dare to, when Russia and China are behind us.

Having taken over

1 Take immediate steps to reduce the spiraling cost of living

2 Restore the fertilizer subsidy to farmers and take immediate steps to reduce the cost of living

3 Set up a Cabinet of 15 Ministers and 15 Deputies

4 Abolish the JR/Rajiv Accord of 1978

5 Abolish the curse that is Provincial Councils

6 Ban all communal and religious political Parties

7 Put behind bars all those responsible for the CB Robbery and other major scams pending judicial proceedings

8 Restore the independence of and the highest degree of professionalism in the Judiciary and the Public Service including the Foreign Service

9 Prune all extravagant government expenses and privileges of politicians like, pension rights, duty free vehicle permits and save that money for development

10 Appoint specially selected 24 GAA of proven ability and record to the 24 Districts to be in charge of the development and administration at the district levels as the first step in re-organizing the Public Service

These ten steps alone will put you in the heavens of popularity and assure your continuity at least for 25 years of cause until you make some blunders.

That part of the International Community blindly led by USA, UK and EU must accept we are a free, Independent and Sovereign Stateand leave alone for us to decide our destinies.

Why don’t the USA, UK and other self-appointed International Communities, first admit that Sri Lanka is an Independent, Free and Sovereign State, though small in Size, as much as they all are and any other country, Is it not enough that they have robbed, exploited and destroyed this country for 500 years to their satisfaction in style, starting from 1505. It has been the home of the unique Sinhala Buddhist culture fore for 2 ½ millennia and the only country in the world known by 123 world languages. It is also the repository and fountain of Buddhism that has preserved a living Buddhist culture over the past 2500 years that should be protected and preserved for posterity as a country and a model civilization to admire for humanity, the world over without destroying it. What morality do they have on earth to continue to destroy that heritage to humanity, even after the so-called made in Britain fake Independence supposed to have been granted in 1948 following 500 years of subjugation, exploitation, and wanton destruction.

They also must accept that we have declared this country as an Independent Democratic Socialist Republic in 1972 and we are no longer a colony of either UK or any other country.

What we need today is a strong patriotic leadership to give this message to these savage invaders and re-discover that was Sri Lanka or Sinhale that had been one of the greatest nations in the world for 2 ½ millennia when most of them were living naked in caves and creeping trees like monkeys.

Also who can tell them to mind their own business without conspiring to destroy this Island nation for alleged violations of human rights and what not, and ask them as to why don’t they look in retrospect and see what crimes they have jointly committed against humanity during the first and second World wars and during colonial expansions in US, Africa and Australia by mass murder by the gun, sword, arson and poisons, before they point their blood stained fingers at us who are struggling to re-emerge from such colonial repressions destructions committed by the for 500 years.

Tomorrow they will have to pay the toll for the crimes they commit against us today as this is the only land on earth blessed by the Buddha

Finally, how come these Western powers, who are in their last lap and sunset days of world superiority as people like Samuel Huntingdon have predicted way back in 1997, hypocritically treat LTTE Tamils terrorist and their so-called Tamil Diaspora as equals of this sovereign nation, and take their side, as a last string to hang, while treating the Sovereign Sri Lankan nation, a permanent and loyal member of the UN for the past 65 odd years as a pack of criminals.

I wonder whether these Western nations have already admitted the New York based GTGE outfit as a permanent member of UN. We don’t mind their accepting even all the Tamils in the whole world as their beloved immigrants as long as these colonial powers don’t interfere with our Independence or freedom, which are sour privies as a sovereign State. I can vouch these Western powers that they will have to pay dearly one day as Rajiv had to do in 1997, for ignoring my appeal made to him not to help LTTE terrorist by providing them with military training on Indian soil and providing all other assistance to fight against Sri Lankan Government and warning of the consequences. I also predicted that his own guns will be aimed at him before and not at us, as this is the only land on earth that has been thrice Blesse by the Buddha. It will be blessed by his blessings and protected by the Gods for 5000 years to come at least. Therefore no enemy can destroy it or the Sinhala nation as it has been aptly proved from Rama (5000 BC) to Prabhakaran (2009 AD)

Therefore please note that you people don’t dabble with the internal affairs of this free, independent and sovereign nation, as we too have a right for self- determination and self- rule and the freedom to elect the leaders whom we want, as much as you all have, if not more, as we have been so for the past 2600 years, as cultured nation long before some of your nations were born.

Dear Patriots, these are only few inborn sorrowful sentiments of a solitary patriot whose heart is bleeding for his motherland and his nation. I earnestly appeal to all Sinhala Buddhist Patriots of this country as well as those living all over this planet earth to fall in line with me and fight against these glaring injustices committed against us by our enemies and to strive to liberate this Island nation from the cruel and vicious clutches of all these anti Sinhala and anti-Buddhist neocolonial forces. So that we could jealously protect it for posterity as our valiant forefathers had done for thousands of years.

A new definition to Ambassador

In this backdrop I think we also have to revisit and redefine the meaning of the word ambassador to be changed in the modern context as An Ambassador in the case of a powerful country or a carton of such countries is a man and a spy sent to continue to interfere with and interrupt the freedom of ex-colonies for perpetuating their colonial exploitation and expansion for their own benefit following the Kautilyan doctrine of Matsyanyaya, where the small fish is always the prey of the big fish.

Editorial Courtesy The Island

February 21, 2018, 10:15 pm
It is being argued in legal and political circles that the incumbent administration and its Cabinet are illegal because the MoU between the UNP and the UPFA to form a national government was valid only for two years from 2015. The validity or otherwise of this vital document is of crucial import. The number of Cabinet ministers cannot exceed 30 unless there is a national government, according to the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.

Yesterday, in answer to a query from the Opposition, the Prime Minister declared, in Parliament, that the MoU at issue was still valid and consistent with the Constitution. It had not been rescinded, he insisted. General Secretary of the UPFA and minister Mahinda Amaraweera endorsed the PM’s statement. He said the two parties were still bound by the MoU at issue. Deputy Minister Ajith P. Perera said the MoU had not mentioned that the national government would end after two years.

Are we to conclude that the national government is legitimate simply because the PM and the General Secretary of the UPFA say so. Is this particular MoU open-ended as claimed by Deputy Minister Perera? Didn’t the government say in 2015 that the national government agreement was valid only for two years? Did its leaders lie to the public?

Can we take the PM’s word for it? When the Treasury bond scams first came to light with the government being pressured to answer questions from the Opposition, the PM insisted, in Parliament, that there had been no wrongdoing, didn’t he? Deputy Minister Perera is one of the UNP MPs who got now infamous footnotes incorporated into the COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises) report on the bond scams, diluting its conclusion.

Amaraweera once defended the Rajapaksa government to the hilt while being a part of it, but now he tells us it was corrupt and President Sirisena is the best leader. The less said about the UPFA ministers the better. It was only the other day that many of them declared they would not be in a government which had Wickremesinghe as the PM. But, today, they are humming a different tune.

All politicians have a severe trust deficit. So, the question is whether anyone’s ex cathedra statements anent the national government can be taken as the gospel truth.

Will the JVP and the Joint Opposition (JO) buy into the PM’s claim backed by Amaraweera and abandon their protests? On Tuesday, no less a person than JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayaka together with JO big guns declared in Parliament that the government and the Cabinet were illegal. What a song and dance they made! They said the national government MoU had expired as it had not been extended with parliamentary approval. They have to either challenge the PM’s claim or admit that they got it all wrong and misled the public.

We can’t expect politicians, especially the ones in power, to tell us the truth when their interests are threatened. Nothing is scarier to them than the prospect of losing power and opportunities to amass ill-gotten wealth and live off the fat of the land at the expense of the taxpaying public. No one in his or her proper senses will expect them to tell the truth and run the risk of losing power in the process. No minister will ever admit that the UPFA-UNP MoU has expired, for fear of losing his or her portfolio, in the event of the Cabinet having to be downsized in keeping with the 19th Amendment. So, asking the current ministers whether the national government agreement is still valid or not is as stupid as inquiring from a Panchikawatta trader if the spare parts he deals in are genuine.

Let the JO and JVP worthies be urged to dare the government to produce the UPFA-UNP MoU and peruse it to see if it is open-ended or not. President Maithripala Sirisena should seriously consider seeking a Supreme Court opinion on the MoU at issue because its constitutionality stands questioned.

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa says the time period of the national government has expired.

Rajapaksa made this statement at Battaramulla today (21).

There is no clear ruling party in the country at present and it had led the country to an unstable state. The President Prime Minister and the MPs of the national government are all working unto their whims and fancies” he said.

Therefore, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya should take a clear decision whether the national government was still in existence and give a ruling on the validity of the Cabinet as soon as possible, the Former President added.

By Colonel R Hariharan Courtesy Ceylon Today

After Mahinda Rajapaksa’s fledgling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) handed out a shocking defeat to both the UNP and the SLFP in the Local Government (LG) elections, the three-way political power game has become more complex than before. A gloating Rajapaksa, past master in political manoeuvring, is demanding fresh elections after dissolving the Parliament, though he knows it would not happen as both the SLFP and UNP would never oblige him.

For President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, more than power, credibility has become the main issue. They are trying to retain their credibility on multiple fronts – as leaders of the unity coalition that set out to provide an alternative to Rajapaksa’s autocratic rule, to survive as leaders of the party in the face of challengers making deals to dethrone them and to show the people that they can still deliver on what they promised before the end of this term.

Avadhānam

The current situation faced by the three leaders – Rajapaksa, Sirisena and Wickremesinghe – may be aptly described as ‘wheels in wheels’ – a number of different influences, reasons and actions which together make a situation complicated and difficult to understand, as Collins dictionary says. But, the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe duo has a bigger burden than Rajapaksa, who is at the barricades, heckling them from the periphery.

Notwithstanding their internal party leadership compulsions, the skills of both Sirisena and Wickremesinghe will be tested on many aspects in the coming months as political uncertainty looms large in the horizon. LG election results show, their rule has raised a whole lot of questions in the minds of people of all hues – Sinhalas, Muslims, Tamils and others who believed them and voted them to power. Both of them need to answer these questions.

Perhaps, both the leaders need the multi-tasking ability of Avadhānam practitioners of ancient India. Avadhānaṃ used to be a popular literary entertainment performed in ancient days in India. It is still performed in isolated pockets of Andhra and Tamil Nadu. It involves the partial improvisation of poetry using specific themes, metres, forms, or words.

The two performances of Avadhānam I had seen in Tamil Nadu were performed in Tamil, though originally it was the preserve of Sanskrit scholars in ancient India. In Andhra Pradesh it is still in vogue. In both the performances I saw, the scholars showcased their mastery of cognitive skills in observation, memory, multitasking, recapitulation and logical reasoning in literature, poetry, music, mathematical skills and solving conundrums – all at the same time! Typically, the second line of a verse from a Tamil classic like Tirukkuralor Kamba Ramayanam was quoted by the questioner (Prcchaka) and the Avadhani countered it with the first line of the verse. At the same time the Avadhani had to keep count of cowrie shells, continuously thrown on his back, while another questioner posed a mathematical problem on the black board. Surprisingly, the Avadhanis came out with very impressive performance.

After the LG election, the first priority for both the leaders is to consciously reassure, not only their followers, but also people who brought them to power and that their alliance was not one of convenience, but to deliver value.

Walking the talk

The second, but perhaps the most difficult priority is walking the talk. Most of the initiatives they had taken are held up due to pulls and pressures or tangled in bureaucratic maze. Nearly forty cases of corruption, misuse of power, human rights violations, economic crimes, cronyism and even murders, are stagnating in various stages of investigation or prosecution.

They need to be taken to their logical conclusion. People have been waiting for answers to serious allegations made by responsible ministers that Rajapaksa family members and others had indulged in many of these crimes. And three years is a long time. As we say in Hindi, time has come for Doodh ka doodh aur pani ka pani (making things crystal clear). Otherwise, when Sirisena and Wickremesinghe go to the hustings again, people would not believe them. In this context, the duo has to speed up the prosecutions of the accused in Bonds scam; then only the Unity Government can refurbish its tarnished image.

The third and equally difficult priority is to draft the new Constitution now before time runs out. There is need for some honest soul searching on this issue among the leaders of political, civil society and media. They should help speed up the process for an equitable constitution. Otherwise, the lessons of the civil war in which over 100, 000 Sri Lankan shed their blood would be wasted. A business process approach of transparency in interactions among the stakeholders including the people and encouraging periodic interaction to take the public into confidence will create a less politicized environment for evolving a new Constitution.

In the early days leading to World War II, when Russia’s attitude to the brewing conflict was not known, Sir Winston Churchill speaking on the radio in October 1938 said, “I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. The key is Russian national interests.” The Sri Lankan situation may be compared to Churchill’s Russian conundrum. Sri Lankan politicians would do well to remember that whatever they decide has to be in national interest; all other considerations are peripheral to this fundamental responsibility.

(Col R Hariharan, a retired MI specialist on South Asia, served as the head of Intelligence of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka from 1987 to 90. He is associated with the Chennai Centre for China Studies and the International Law and Strategic Analysis Institute, Chennai. E-mail: haridirect@gmail.com Blog: http://col.hariharan.info)

By Anuradha Herath Courtesy Ceylon Today

Leader of the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya and Member of Parliament Udaya Gammanpila says that when the Joint Opposition told the President that they would not accept ministerial posts in the new government, he had asked them to at least take over the post of Speaker.

“We agreed to have an internal discussion and arrive at a verdict soon,” he stated.

Following are excerpts:

So all of you were saved because of Mahinda?

A: Most definitely, yes! The leader should be a blessing to the team. A leader should not be a pressure or a burden to a group. The leader of our group was a blessing to the group. It is enough even to mention his name to win an election.

So what you are saying is that without Mahinda Rajapaksa no one would have been able to make it?

A: That is wrong. That is not determined by Mahinda Rajapaksa not being there. By now Prime Minister Ranil and President Sirisena are burdens to those groups. If Mahinda was not there, there would have been another leader. Who will be the next leader…? That will be determined on whether that leader is a blessing or a burden.

What do you feel about this controversial victory?

A: This is a victory that changed history. In the history of Sri Lanka it was the side with State power that always won. The President of the country has never been defeated in his own district. The Prime Minister of the country has never lost his own district. All of that happened at this election. The main reason was that Abraham Lincoln’s saying was confirmed. He said, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”

On 8 January, people who were ignorantly in darkness fell into a pit, fell into the same pit at dawn on 17 August. However after daylight fell, people saw the truth and did not fall into that same pit on 10 February.

People who were against accusations of corruption expressed their strong objections to the corruption and economy of the present government. However as the alternative opposed to the government, once again selecting the previous group was a mistake on the part of the people, wasn‘t it?

A: What you say would have been correct if the economy had collapsed by that time and through some chance the accusations targeting Mahinda had been confirmed, and the people joined the previous thieves once again, then your argument would have been successful. You may recall that prior to the elections two powerful accusations of murder were made – Lasantha and Thajudeen. At the same time there was an accusation that 18 billion dollars had been hidden in a Bank in Dubai. A number of accusations like Lamborghinis, gold horses and what not, targeted the Rajapaksas. However during the past three years, not one accusation could be proved. The people realized that. As the Opposition, we accused the Government and fought for three years against those accusations.

Do you believe that with the victory you achieved, you would be able to cover up accusations of corruption targeting many in your camp? There is a very powerful accusation against you regarding a Power-of-Attorney and the case against you is in the process of being heard?

A: If I begin with myself, I have been in politics for 17 years. Nobody in the Opposition had made any accusation against me regarding theft, thuggery or debauchery. It became a serious problem for Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka. There was a sack full of accusations against him. An Australian national was brought to Sri Lanka to get him to say that he did not give me a Power-of-Attorney which was given to me 19 years ago. He had not made any complaint at all over 19 years.

The Court accepted the fact he had not sent me a letter, an email or even an SMS requesting that his money be handed over to him. It has become clearly apparent now in the presence of the Court that he is a false witness. Since I am a defendant in that case, I have no way of expressing my views in public. Mawbima and other media reported those false facts very well.

Even though you put Mahinda forward and won the election there are strong allegations that those who have been elected this time have accusations of abuse against them. Are you going to be responsible for such members?

A: According to the law in our country if someone is found guilty of a crime, they cannot contest at elections. I do not know about accusations against others. Only their conscience is aware of it. It is unfair to paste a label on someone just because there is an accusation. If they had committed any offence it would be the people of the village who would know about it. Therefore until an individual is proven guilty in Court, it should be accepted that he is innocent.

Fortunately the individuals among us who were named thieves are now with Maithripala. They were scared of the law being implemented against them and went seeking protection from the President. I have to say with pleasure that the President cleaned up our side for us.

At the last election Mahinda Rajapaksa received 5.8 million votes. This time that figure has decreased by eight hundred thousand. How can you say that this is a significant victory?

A: Such arguments are presented only by naïve politicians. A person will say you have cleared 20m in long jump. However you have cleared only 2m in high jump. Therefore there is a difference of 18m. If someone asks whether it is not a decline, what that shows is his lack of knowledge on sport. Isn’t that so?

According to the forces which joined together to defeat Mahinda Rajapaksa in January (8) 2015 various arguments are being put forward by now regarding the voter percentages?

A: It was true that these two factions were together in 2015. But this time they contested against each other. The SLFP accused the Prime Minister of being a thief regarding the Treasury Bond scam. The UNP accused the SLFP saying they were pickpockets and snakes. As much as the votes given to the SLFP came to the Flower Bud, votes given to the UNP came into the SLFP as well as the Flower Bud.

All of these cannot be collated. As Mangala and Rajitha say we received only 46%. If that is true then 67% is against the UNP.

The reason is because the UNP received only 33%. The Alliance received 13%. If you consider that, it is Mahinda who has the least opposition.

Even though there is a request asking the government to resign, what was held was the Local Government Elections. You cannot suppress the existing people‘s mandate until 2020, can you?

A: The Presidential Election will not be held in 2020. It has to be held in October 2019. There are only 20 months to go. Why should the President, Prime Minister resign at a Local Government Election? It is the first time in history that neither President nor Prime Minister could not win even a Local Government Election. This is an election that can be won while in power. If that is not possible, anyhow it will not be possible to win any others. That means the mandate is finished.

The reason is because whatever the government does, the people will take to the streets and express their objections. Even if the trust of the majority in the country is broken, the President and Prime Minister can stay on with the objective of a brighter future. However the future of the people in the country is in darkness.

Even if a request is being made to dissolve Parliament, according to the Constitution, it cannot be done until 4 ½ years have lapsed. If that is to be done, a proposal to that effect should be passed in Parliament with a two-thirds majority?

A: I would like to know where that is mentioned. Where does it say that a proposal should be passed with a two-thirds majority?

It is mentioned in the Constitution.

A: The proposal can be passed with a simple majority in Parliament. That means it can be done with the Parliamentary quorum. If there are only 20 present on that day and eleven of them raise their hands in favour, the proposal can be adopted and Parliament dissolved. We say that the government has been defeated and it is finished. Some individuals in the government accept the fact with bowed heads. However, Ministers such as Rajitha Senaratne and Mangala Samaraweera are bringing up hair-splitting arguments that they have not been defeated. If they have not been defeated, they should go and face the people and prove victory. Then no one can say anything at all.

It is clear that Mahinda Rajapaksa cannot contest a Presidential Election. Basil Rajapaksa and Gotabaya Rajapaksa cannot contest because they have American citizenship. Is your goal, another Rajapaksa?

A: Actually in this country there is a group of mature, very clever politicians above and beyond our demand. Such clever leaders do not exist in the government. That is why the government has failed in their mission. However, the request of the country is not to appoint someone from among these persons but to get Gotabaya Rajapaksa to become the next President. It is the majority opinion in the country. There is a big demand for him. But, unfortunately he has not expressed willingness as yet.

If the people have a clear desire for Gotabaya Rajapaksa, then he will express his willingness in the near future…?

A: I think that the people of this country can convince Gotabaya Rajapaksa to contest for the Presidential Election. We believe that Gotabaya Rajapaksa is the Vladimir Putin, Lee-Kuan Yu, Mahathir Mohammed of Sri Lanka. A strong leader with discipline and honesty is required.

Basil Rajapaksa whom you did not appreciate very much then has become a good leader for you all today?

A: Not only Basil Rajapaksa but everyone in this world has good characteristics. They have bad characteristics too. We appreciate good things. We criticize bad things. Basil Rajapaksa was engaged in a powerful role at this election. If we cannot appreciate that we are very insincere.

On the 16th the Joint Opposition (JO) met the President and engaged in a special discussion. What were the decisions taken as a Party…?

A: A group of us including the leader of JO Dinesh Gunawardena met the President. As the Joint Opposition we told the President then that Ranil Wickremesinghe should be removed from his post as Prime Minister and if arrangements are made to appoint a Prime Minister from UPFA, we would support the President.

At that time, the President requested the JO to accept ministerial posts in order to confirm this statement. At that time we stated what was said during the elections was that we would make Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Prime Minister. Therefore we have to respect the mandate we received. And we stated that we will not accept ministerial posts. Then the President asked us at least to take over the post of Speaker. We agree to have an internal discussion and arrive at a verdict. Susil Premajayantha from UPFA and Dinesh Gunawardena from JO were appointed for this purpose. The President also said he would obtain legal advice on appointing a new Prime Minister.

At present there are accusations that the country is unstable. If such problems keep dragging on continuously there will be huge political chaos and confusion…?